Green Power Switch News
Vol. 3, No. 2— Spring 2003

Green Power Switch Expands

Green Power Switch is now available to customers of more than 60 local power companies across the Tennessee Valley.

On January 30, 2003, representatives from these power companies participated in a new-distributor training session:

• City of Alcoa Electric Department (Tennessee)
• Athens Utility Board (Tennessee)
• Blue Ridge Mountain Electric Membership Corporation (Georgia)
• Cleveland Utilities (Tennessee)
• Harriman Utility Board (Tennessee)
• City of Maryville Electric Department (Tennessee)
• Plateau Electric Cooperative (Tennessee)
• North Georgia Electric Membership Corporation (Georgia)
• Sequachee Valley Electric Cooperative (Tennessee)
• Sweetwater Utilities Board (Tennessee)
• Upper Cumberland Electric Membership Corporation (Tennessee)

Each of the power companies sent designated Green Power Switch coordinators to the full-day training session held in Chattanooga, Tenn. The training session provided participants with an overview of Green Power Switch, tools to implement a billing system for green power sales, marketing techniques, and an overall implementation strategy. The power companies plan to launch their programs this spring.

View the current list of participating distributors.

Mississippi State Goes Solar

TVA’s second solar power array in Mississippi is located on the campus of Mississippi State University in Starkville. The solar photovoltaic (PV) system is built as a canopy covering a sidewalk between the new Landscape Architecture Building and the Ammerman-Hearnsberger Pilot Food Processing Lab.

The array has 104 PV modules, which are made of a light-sensitive material sandwiched between two plates of glass. The entire system can produce about 26,300 kilowatt-hours of electricity a year; that’s enough energy to supply 1-2 typical Tennessee Valley homes. The energy generated at the site goes into the distribution network of the Starkville Electric System, then to the TVA power grid. Starkville Electric System is the local distributor that offers Green Power Switch to its customers.

 

In this issue

Ranking Among the Top 10 for a Second Straight Year Also: The Greener Cleaner

Green Power Switch Expands Also: Mississippi State Goes Solar

Renewable Energy Legislation Introduced

Updates: Generation and participation figures

Green Power Switch is a renewable energy initiative that offers consumers in the Tennessee Valley a choice in the type of power they buy. TVA and local public power companies, working in cooperation with the environmental community, developed Green Power Switch as a way to bring green power—electricity that’s generated by cleaner, renewable resources like solar, wind, and methane gas—to Valley consumers.

Green Power Switch is sold to residential consumers in 150-kilowatt-hour blocks (about 12 percent of a typical household’s monthly energy use). Each block adds $4 to the customer’s monthly power bill. For more information, visit the Green Power
Switch home page.