hard deadlines

According to a story posted on ProvidenceJournal.com, the RI Public Utility Commission has ruled in favor of Portsmouth in an action that questioned the rate the Town received from National Grid.

According to the article, the PUC ruled "that the Town of Portsmouth has not, and is not currently, receiving an excessive rate for the output it sells back to National Grid."

YAAAAY!

Wind Fest at the turbine!

Come on down to the Portsmouth Wind Turbine for the Wind Fest from 10:30am-1:30pm today near the basketball court at Portsmouth High School.

Wind Fest at the turbine!

It's the Portsmouth Wind Turbine's first birthday, and People's Power and Light is throwing a party. This Saturday, May 22, from 10:30am-1:30pm stop by the basketball court near the turbine (at Portsmouth High School) for some clean-energy fun and games.

Get their early for free refreshments and t-shirts, and enjoy art projects, games, and folk music. You'll be able to talk with the Portsmouth Sustainable Energy Subcommittee to hear about how they made it all happen, you'll get to see the turbine up close, and you can chat with the good folks from People's Power and Light to hear how you can enroll in their GreenStart program to support more projects like this.

See you there!

Hard to believe it was just a year ago...

Today marks the one-year anniversary of Portsmouth's wind turbine generator going online, and according to figures from the Planning Dept., it is running at 110% of estimated production, and has generated electricity worth more than $550,000 for the town.

"Needless to say, we are very pleased with annual production," said assistant town planner Gary Crosby. "February, 2010 was our fourth month in a row of 100% availability with zero down time. As you can see from the figures, we have really hit our stride."

Portsmouth Economic Development Committee (PEDC) Chair Rich Talipsky agreed. "As expected, the wind turbine had some adjustment issues and operational glitches in the first six months, but after the adjustments were made, the project has exceeded all expectations both in reliability and power output."

Total Production: 3,625,950 kWH Highest 24-hr production: 36,460 kWH on January 29, 2010 Longest period of continuous production: 206+ hours between Dec 15, 2009 and December 24, 2009 Highest 24-hr average wind speed: 31.41 mph on January 25, 2010 Highest 10-minute average wind speed: 39.5 mph at 5:10 pm on January 29, 2010 Highest Wind Gust: 57.3 mph at 2:50 am on January 29, 2010

Source: Town Planning Dept.

The wind turbine was approved by a 60% majority of Portsmouth voters in 2007, and the project was planned and managed by the citizen-volunteers of the PEDC Sustainable Energy Subcommittee: Talipsky, Gary Gump, Bob Hamilton, and Doug Smith.

Reflecting on the past year, Talipsky said, "The project team members often look up at the wind turbine and say, 'How did we do it?' And, when we thought about it, we came to the realization that we had developed the right chemistry between the citizens, the Town leadership and the project contractor that enabled an honest dialogue. It was the heart of a working relationship that brought potential problems and issues to the forefront early so that they could be resolved."

Now, when you drive along East Main Road, it just looks like part of the scenery. A year later, nobody remembers the delays as shipments were held up by load limits on highways, or the March snowstorm that brought construction to a halt, or the tense moments of watching the wind speed gauge for a break to hoist the final sections.

Talipsky admits that the PEDC does miss the drama, a little. "After laboring on the project for over four years, it was hard for our team to let go of our fledgling project and turn it over to the Town for continued management. But, that was the way we had planned for it to work. The wind turbine generator was to become a normal piece of Town infrastructure managed by Town personnel with an Enterprise Fund that would provide accountability on the costs and revenues of the project."

And with a half-million dollars of revenue already in the town's coffers (minus, of course, bond payments and maintenance), the team can feel good about what they've handed over. "We could not have hoped for a better first year," said Talipsky.

See a collection of all prior coverage here.

On Monday, Gov. Donald Carieri signed legislation sponsored by Rep. David Segal which enables renewable energy producers to get more credit for the electricity they put back on the grid. The bill overrides rulings by the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) which meant municipalities like Portsmouth, with their own turbine, could only offset their top 5 electric meters. According to information made available by the Governor's office, the new law allows utilities to write a check directly to the project owner or municipalities can now opt to offset their top 10 meters.

Rich Talipsky, chair of the Portsmouth Economic Development Committee (PEDC), expressed satisfaction with the legislation.

"It is amazing how complicated something gets when a simple bill gets in the hands of the PUC, as we saw with their interpretation of last year's bill that limited our credits to only that used on five Town electric meters," said Talipsky. "I hope that the bill just signed by the Governor leaves no question in the eyes of the PUC that Portsmouth will receive full credit for all the energy the wind turbine produces rather than being limited to credit on some arbitrary number of electric meters."

According to figures published on the PEDC Web site, Portsmouth's wind turbine, in the first four months of its operation, has produced over 1,000 megawatts of electricity, which translates to $150K in revenue to the town.

"Portsmouth went to a lot of trouble in establishing a Wind Turbine Enterprise Fund to make sure the turbine's costs and revenues were properly and equitably managed," said Talipsky. "The new legislation option for the power company to 'write a check' to the Town for all credits and let the Town manage the credits is exactly what we had planned on all along."

Resources:
See the original press release on RI.gov
PEDC Sustainable energy site

Jack learns about the atmosphere from David Stookey.

At least 200 people attended the alternative energy fair at the Portsmouth wind turbine today, according to organizer David Stookey. There were more than a dozen exhibitors, ranging from solar power to fuel-efficient cars to a refrigerator recycling program from National Grid.

Seriously — if you have an old refrigerator in the garage, they'll pick it up for free and give you a $30 rebate. Get the details on their CoolTurnIn site.

It was a beautiful afternoon, and when Jack and I stopped by around 3pm, there were a bunch of families there with their kids, wandering around the high school tennis court and field.

Portsmouth Economic Development Committee chair Rich Talipsky and Sustainable Energy chair Gary Gump were on hand to talk about the wind turbine.

Thanks to all the organizers: Cool Aquidneck Island, Newport's Channing Memorial Church, the RI Council of MoveOn.org, and the RI Chapter of the Sierra Club.

Resources
Cool Aquidneck Island Web site
National Grid's CoolTurnIn site

Sunday at the turbine!

This will be a busy weekend here in the East Bay. I'm sure everyone is hoping for a break in the weather this weekend, especially those aiming to attend the world-famous Bristol parade. And if you haven't read the Sakonnet Times story on two of the the special guests, it's worth a peek. Hint: They were in Times Square on August 14, 1945.

Looking for activities? Aquidneck Moms Town has put together a list, as well as the always helpful OnAquidneck.com. I find both of these sites essential for keeping up with happenings around here.

Hope everyone will also turn out for Energy Independence Day on July 5, which will be celebrated with a clean energy fair at the Portsmouth wind turbine from 1-4pm.

Sponsored by Cool Aquidneck Island, Newport's Channing Memorial Church, the RI Council of MoveOn.org, and the RI Chapter of the Sierra Club, the event will "feature tables, booths, activities, awards, and educational information about how your family can save money with clean energy." Want ways to reduce carbon emissions? Want to help Congress put some teeth in ACES? Support renewable energy at National Grid? C'mon down.

Free admission, really loose agenda (i.e., none) so bring chairs and a picnic lunch, kick back, and get an up-close look at Portsmouth's newest landmark.

And hey, the flyer sez you can "win a prize if you come without using any carbon — on foot, by bike, teleporting, whatever."

More info on the Cool Aquidneck Island Web site.

Full disclosure: Personally, I believe that teleporting may have a larger carbon footprint than suspected. The amount of energy (the tension, "t") required to pry open a wormhole between two points in spacetime is proportional to the diameter of the throat:

Cite
Morris, M.S. and Thorne, K.S., "Wormholes in spacetime and their use for interstellar travel," American Journal of Physics, 1988, Vol. 56 (May), pp 395-412. Cited and modified for English units in Time Machines, Paul Nahin, Springer-Verlag, NY, 1999, p. 501.

Portsmouth's wind turbine generator will make a spectacular backdrop for a local alternative energy festival scheduled for July 5 at from 1-4 pm at the High School. According to an e-mail sent to supporters:

Energy Independence Day is July 5th! Cool Aquidneck Island, the RI Council of MoveOn.org, Channing Green Congregation, and Sierra Club RI Chapter are hosting an energy fair from 1 to 4 PM, to highlight how we Americans can free ourselves from foreign oil dependence and reduce greenhouse gases at the same time. Fun and Games for all ages! Exhibits! Prizes! Bring your family and all your friends!

For more info, or if you want to volunteer, you can e-mail David Stookey.

See you there!

Thursday night, the Portsmouth wind turbine will be featured on the National Geographic Channel series "World's Toughest Fixes." Check out a preview on the National Geographic Web site. (And if you want to see the climax of the action they tease with in the promo, I caught video of the tagline snap here.)

The Portsmouth EDC moved a press release today, but Judy Tate sent a heads-up last week. And she got great pix.

Assistant Town Planner Gary Crosby at the WTG terminal

One of the tidbits in last Monday's Portsmouth Town Council meeting was the report that, in its first month of operation, the Wind Turbine Generator (WTG) had made the town approximately $35,000. Earlier this week, I stopped by Town Hall to find out where those numbers come from.

Gary Crosby is Portsmouth's Assistant Town Planner, and he, along with Portsmouth EDC member and Sustainable Energy chair Gary Gump, gave an overview of the monitoring system provided to the town by turbine manufacturer AAER. There are two SCADA terminals in town, one at Town Hall and one at the Fire Department.

"The one at Town Hall is just there to monitor, there is one in the fire station with operational controls," said Gump. "They have a big red button that can start or stop the turbine."

Physically, the "SCADA terminal" is just a web application on a computer sitting next to the rack of gear that occupies a corner of business development director Bill Clark's office. There are several screens of graphical information, showing real-time as well as historical data about all aspects of the WTG's operation.

WTG terminal at Town Hall

"There are a gazillion sensors," said Crosby. "The datastream goes to [AAER's] Canadian center where they monitor the operational parameters in their surveillance facility. Then the datastream is sent back here."

On that day, the terminal showed that the WTG was producing about 400 kilowatts. The turbine has been set to artificially lower production limits during its run-in period, Crosby explained, as AAER captured wind data to tune the turbine for the local conditions. All of this is covered under the warranty and the maintenance contract with the manufacturer.

But even in these early results, "the averages are what we would expect," Gump said. The turbine produced power for 427 hours since March 18, generating 252 megawatts.

There are two income streams which add up to the $35K number, Gump explained. "One is per Renewable Energy Certificates (REC), which are 4 cents per kilowatt. So 250 [megawatts of] RECs is about $10,000. And the electricity generated, for which the approximate revenue is about 10-11 cents per kilowatt-hour, so between $25-27,000."

The numbers are approximate, because the Town actually gets the generation revenue as an offset against usage. "We'll have to wait till we see our first power bill," said Crosby. "According to regulations from the Public Utilities Commission, we don't get to credit all our accounts, just the top 5 [town meters]."

For the present, the numbers are being posted on the bulletin board across from the Town Clerk's office, but Gump said they are working with AAER to see if they can figure out a way to post the data on the Town web site.

And Crosby and Gump took the opportunity to explain the difference between the Town turbine and the one at the Abbey. They had gotten some questions about why the Town turbine turns more slowly, and why it doesn't appear to spin as often as the one at the Abbey.

"The turbine at the Abbey is always turning; that's a design decision," said Crosby. "But it's not making power until it reaches 28 rpm. Ours will not turn when the wind speed is below 3.3 meters per second [7 mph] but as soon as it starts turning, it is producing power. And it when the wind reaches 11.5 meters per second [25 mph] it is turning as fast as it ever will. Never faster than about 19 rpm. Compared to to the Abbey — at 19 rpm they haven't even started producing yet, but we can generate 2.5 times the power."

Gary Gump explains control panel in WTG.

Gump had to take some photos inside the turbine, so I tagged along. The first thing you notice, approaching it, is the difference in sound. When you're up close to the Abbey turbine, there is a definite, individual sound as the blade descends, not quite a "whump," but a distinct sound. At the Portsmouth turbine, even standing directly below it, there is only a vague, sustained "whooshing" as the blades rotate. My sense is that it is significantly quieter. Part of it is likely due to the height of the tower, but the aerodynamics of the blades helps.

"The blade technology improves every year," Gump explained.

The loudest sound at the base is actually the hum from the step-up transformer that brings the WTG output of 690 volts up to the 13.5kV for the grid.

There is a bulkhead door at the top of a short flight of metal steps. "The Fire Department has a key," Gump said. Inside the base, there is a central panel showing readouts on the power coming down from the generator, and a control panel on the wall that mirrors the information on the SCADA display. In the middle is s big red button. "That's the emergency stop," said Gump.

There is a thrumming echo inside the tower; not loud, but constant, and you can feel vibration in the walls. "You have to imagine the dynamic stress," said Gump. "The torque from the blade at the top is going to be different than the blade at the bottom."

Outside the turbine, the construction equipment has been removed, but the site is still being restored. Eventually, all the hay bales will be gone and it will look pretty much as it did before. At the base of the approach road, a new National Grid meter tracks the power being generated.

"We haven't looked at that meter," Gump said, "But we're comfortable that the production will be close to the model in the economic feasibility study."

Resources:
Pictures from tour up on Flickr
Visit the Portsmouth Sustainable Energy site for more info.
Visit AAER to learn more about the folks who made the turbine. (Great team picture here.)

Editorial note: Thanks to former water board member Rich Gottlieb for explaining SCADA terminals and setting up the show-and-tell.