Press Releases

Community Energy Green Power Utility Partner Programs Honored by U.S. Department of Energy

Four Programs Make Nation’s Top Utility Green Power Programs Lists

(Radnor, PA) – The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) recently announced the most successful utility green power programs in the country. The top 10 lists rank utility programs that offer renewable energy products to their customers in a variety of categories. Four Community Energy partners finished in the top ten in three separate categories:  total renewable energy sales, total number of customer participants, and customer participation rate. As a supplier or marketer to 17 electric utility or competitive electric supplier programs, Community Energy serves over 110,000 clean energy customers around the country.

“Voluntary wind energy purchases by utility customers leads development of wind generation and continues to drive new wind generation above the status quo,” said Brent Alderfer, Executive Vice President of Community Energy.  “We thank our customers around the country who support new clean energy supply, supporting new jobs, greater energy security, and a cleaner planet.”

The PECO WIND program in Pennsylvania ranked fifth in total number of customer participants, with 36,300, and tenth in total sales, with over 170 million kilowatt hours (kWh) sold.  In Illinois, the City of Naperville program ranked sixth in customer participation rate, with 7.8 percent. In New York, NYSEG and RGE’s “Catch the Wind” program has attracted 22,210 customers, and ranks seventh. National Grid’s GreenUp program in New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts also placed in the top 10 with over 170 million kWh and 23,668 participants.  CEI serves 40 percent of those customers among the six providers in the program.

Customers in these programs on average pay a premium of about $7.50 per month for green power. The total estimated environmental benefits created by the renewable energy purchased in these programs is equivalent to removing almost 34,000 cars or planting over 155,000 acres of trees per year.
NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy’s primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. The NREL top 10 lists for 2008 can be viewed in their entirety at: http://www.nrel.gov/news/press/2009/679.html.

Headquartered in Radnor, Pa., Community Energy, Inc. (CEI) is a marketer and developer of wind energy generation celebrating 10 years of wind power leadership.  CEI is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Iberdrola Renewables – the world leader in wind power.  CEI cites its utility partners and customers as the reason for its success in bringing wind energy to market in new regions of the country.  CEI has developed new wind projects in the mid-Atlantic and Midwest and supports projects under development throughout the US.  For more information, please visit www.NewWindEnergy.com. 

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