SC Edison 2017 Power Mix Compared With 2016, and Green Rate Plans
A perhaps early version of the 2017 Power Content Label for SC Edison has appeared called the July 2018 version. We will compare that with the 2016 label. We will also evaluate the Green Rate Plans.
The first good thing to note is that the unspecified sources of power have dropped to 34% from the previous 41%. This at least makes 7% more of the power sources specified, while a third are still unspecified. The other greenhouse gas producer, Natural Gas, is at 20%, about the same as its 19% last year.
Renewables are at 32%, composed of Solar at 13% (up from 10% last year), Wind at 10%, Geothermal at 8%, and Eligible Hydroelectric at 1%.
Total Clean Energy is Renewables at 32%, Large Hydro at 8%, and Nuclear at 6%, giving 46% of total power, 6% of total power up from 40% last year.
If we evaluate the unspecified sources as natural gas, we get its 34% plus natural gas at 20% to give 54% natural gas. It was 60% in 2016. At 0.922 pounds of CO2 per kWh, it gives a total of 0.54 X 0.922 = 0.50 pounds of CO2 per kWh. In 2016, it was at 0.55. So this is a 9% drop in emissions for SCE.
The SCE 100% Green Rate option is 100% Solar, so it has no emissions.
The SCE 50% Green Rate option has 56% Solar, 5% Wind, 4% Geothermal, and 1% Eligible Hydroelectric, for a total of 66% or 2/3 Renewables. Add to that 4% of Hydro and 3% Nuclear gives 73% Clean Energy. It’s greenhouse gases come from 10% Natural Gas and 17% Unspecified, which we take as Natural Gas. This gives 27% Natural Gas at 0.922 pounds of CO2 per kWh, or 0.25 pounds of CO2 per total kWh. This is precisely 50% of the emissions of the Normal option, and therefore, half-way to zero emissions of the 100% Solar Plan.
