Cape’s electric rates among highest
By
STAFF WRITER
March 18, 2008 6:00 AM
HYANNIS — The average cost of electricity is higher on Cape Cod than it is in any state in the continental United States (19.74¢/kWh from table below). Nationwide only Hawaiians pay more per kilowatt hour (26.6¢/kWh from table below), according to the Energy Information Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy.
But, rather than wait and hope that endeavors such as Cape Wind bring energy costs down — a prospect opponents of the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm contest — local consumers can help themselves by using less, according to members of the Cape and Islands Renewable Energy Collaborative steering committee.
“The goal for residents right now is to be as efficient as possible,” committee member Chris Powicki said yesterday during a meeting with a Times editorial board. Powicki and a handful of fellow committee members told the Times that residents who want to save money during what are fast becoming difficult economic times and simultaneously combat climate change should look closer to home and beyond Cape Wind.
An NStar spokeswoman reached last night declined to comment immediately on the Cape’s electricity cost.
Cape and Islands Renewable Energy Collaborative — or CIRenew — released a plan earlier this year to propel the region toward a goal of generating 100 percent of electricity needs through renewable energy sources by 2020. The group hopes the Cape and Islands can reduce the use of fossil fuels for heating and transportation by 50 percent during the same period.
Baby steps
While large projects such as Cape Wind would make these goals easier to attain, residents and builders can take simple and inexpensive measures to reduce electricity usage, Powicki said.
“If every single person who lives on the Cape installs an energy-efficient light bulb, that would be a lot of savings,” Powicki said.
The Cape Light Compact will provide energy audits for its customers, said committee member and Eastham’s Compact representative, Fred Fenlon.
In 2007, 1,789 residential and 373 business customers with the Compact took advantage of the audits, said the compact’s residential and marketing coordinator, Margaret Song, in a telephone interview yesterday.
Auditors examine a home’s major appliances, lighting and insulation for inefficiencies, Song said. The service is already paid for in customers’ electricity rates, she said.
Customers can get money —
between $100 and $1,500 —
toward energy-efficient appliances and maintenance, she said. For low-income residents, potential benefits are even greater.
Since the cost of electricity began to go up again, the number of customers requesting audits has risen, Song said.
“Energy is one of the most expensive things about a house,” said Virginia Ryan, representative for Housing Assistance Corp. on the CIRenew steering committee.
Housing advocates are looking more than ever toward ways to increase energy efficiency in affordable units, Ryan said.
“We really are working on the building envelopes,” she said. “How do we make it as efficient as possible to start, and then go from there.”
The Cape and Islands are uniquely challenged because many of the homes in the region were originally built as summer homes.
Help with going green
Tax rebates, loan programs and grants can help with the financial implications of “going green,” committee members said.
And jobs in energy-related construction and renovations could help with the lagging economy, said Megan Amsler of Cape and Islands Self-Reliance.
“On the consumer side people are asking for these products, and on the business side people are saying, ‘We don’t know how to do this,’” she said. “There’s a gap.”
CIRenew has plans to fill that gap, Amsler said.
A three-year grant and matching funds from the Cape Cod Economic Development Council and Self-Reliance will be used to place interns and encourage job creation in the field of renewable and energy efficient construction, she said.
But, in spite of all the other actions CIRenew has taken, the group is inevitably asked why it does not take a position on Cape Wind, Powicki said.
To do so could alienate a portion of the organization’s constituency, he said.
CIRenew’s steering committee includes members of the pro-Cape Wind group, Clean Power Now, and the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, an organization that has led the fight against the project.
“It’s a challenge sometimes,” Powicki said. “To the extent that we can get beyond Cape Wind I think that’s beneficial to the community.”
Patrick Cassidy can be reached at pcassidy@capecodonline.com.
How the Cape lines up
Average residential electricity prices November 2007 cents per kilowatt-hour
- Hawaii – 26.60
- Cape Cod – 19.74
- Connecticut – 18.33
- New Jersey – 17.03
- Massachusetts – 15.69
- Maine – 15.42
- New Hampshire – 14.80
- United States – 10.69
Source: Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy
OHIO Residential Rates (drawn from our BEARS2008)
- Illuminating Company (FE) 12.1 (R-10)
- Illuminating Company (FE) 10.8 (all electric rate)
- Ohio Edison (FE) 10.7 (R-10)
- Ohio Edison (FE) 9.1 (R-17) demand sensitive
- Toledo Edison (FE) 12.9
- Ohio Power (AEP) 8.2
- Columbus Southern Power(AEP) 9.5
- Dayton Power & Light 9.3 (July, 2007)
- DUKE 9.3 (July, 2007)
- Cleveland Public Power 13.0 (reflects Energy Adjustment 5.48)
