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AN ORDINANCE authorizing the executive to execute a new, longer term service agreement with Puget Sound Energy for the purchase of renewable energy, replacing the existing service agreement approved under Ordinance 18472.
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STATEMENT OF FACTS:
1. King County is a major electricity customer of Puget Sound Energy, purchasing more than ten million dollars a year in electricity to operate county buildings and facilities within Puget Sound Energy's electricity service territory. Approximately forty-six percent of the electricity supply in the Puget Sound Energy electricity service territory through its standard electricity offerings is supplied by carbon-based sources, including twenty-three percent coal and twenty-three percent natural gas.
2. The 2020 Strategic Climate Action Plan calls for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from government operations by fifty percent by 2025 and eighty percent by 2030, through measures including increasing the percentage of energy from renewable sources used in county operations to seventy percent by 2020, eighty-five percent by 2025, and ninety-five percent by 2030.
3. Puget Sound Energy developed and received approval from the Washington state Utilities and Transportation Commission in September 2016 for Tariff Schedule No. 139 Voluntary Long Term Renewable Energy, known as Green Direct, offering one-hundred-percent renewable electricity to municipal and large commercial electricity users from the Skookumchuck wind facility in western Washington that began operation in November 2020 and the Lund Hill solar facility that went into operation in eastern Washington in December 2022.
4. Puget Sound Energy offered different options for Green Direct energy contracts, including ten- and twenty-year service agreements. The cost of energy was less for the longer-term agreements.
4. Ordinance 18472 authorized the executive to enter into a ten-year service agreement for the purchase of one hundred percent renewable electricity with Puget Sound Energy through Green Direct for a term of ten years. The ten-year service agreement is due to expire in 2030.
5. Purchasing renewable electricity through Green Direct has reduced direct greenhouse emissions for King County operations by sixteen percent from 2019 to 2022.
6. The executive now finds it is in the county's interest to switch from the ten-year service agreement to the twenty-year service agreement option. Puget Sound Energy is willing to allow the county to switch to this twenty-year option. Extending the period of the service agreement will result in additional benefits to the county, including supporting the King County achievement of renewable energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission targets beyond 2030.
7. The parties agree that King County may replace its existing ten-year term contract with a twenty-year term option with a starting date of 2020 and end date of 2040, and have agreed to the identified county facilities currently served by the existing Green Direct agreement with electricity supplied by Puget Sound Energy that will continue to be subject to the new service.
8. Timely execution of the attached service agreement is needed for King County to secure power through the Green Direct option through 2040.
9. King County will remain a full-service Puget Sound Energy customer and will continue to partner with Puget Sound Energy on energy efficiency and other efforts.
10. The actual electrons generated from the wind and solar facility may not directly supply King County operations but will flow to the electrical grid. King County will receive equivalent renewable electricity under the service agreement.
11. Renewable Energy Certificates associated with the wind and solar energy resource will be retired, ensuring that King County's electricity purchase is supporting development of additional renewable energy supply and that associated reductions in greenhouse gas emissions can be counted in King County's greenhouse gas emissions inventory. The retirement of the Renewable Energy Certificates will be verified by the Western Renewable Energy Generation Information System, an independent tracking system.
12. Participation in the ten-year Green Direct contract has reduced King County electricity costs. The price of the renewable resource is established by contract term and calendar year is fixed in the service agreement with Puget Sound Energy. Total projected savings by changing to the twenty-year agreement is estimated to exceed $1,000,000. Savings result from a modest reduction in the price of electricity in the twenty-year agreement over the current ten-year agreement, resulting in approximately $350,000 in savings through 2030, as well as additional savings from enrolling in Green Direct for the additional ten years through 2040.
13. The county will continue to work in partnership with utilities, cities, and businesses to seek further energy conservation and clean, renewable energy supplies for all Puget Sound Energy customers.
14. The term of the proposed service agreement, extends beyond current budget appropriation authorized by the King County council.
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
SECTION 1. The county has determined that changing from existing ten year to the twenty-year service agreement option for the purchase of renewable electricity under the Green Direct program offered by Puget Sound Energy advances the county's renewable energy and greenhouse gas emission reduction goals adopted as part of King County's 2020 Strategic Climate Action Plan.
SECTION 2. Contingent upon the executive's verification that execution of the new service agreement by both parties will result in the termination of the existing service agreement authorized by Ordinance 18472, the executive is authorized to execute a service agreement, with a termination date in 2040, for the purchase of renewable electricity with Puget Sound Energy, substantially in the form of Attachment A to this
ordinance, for the list of customer service address and account numbers identified in Attachment B to this ordinance.