PHI Implements Strategies to Cut Energy Use, GHG Emissions

May 5, 2009

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Pepco Holdings, Inc., (PHI) has released its latest environmental sustainability report, Powering a Sustainable Future, that outlines the environmental activities at each of its subsidiaries.

PHI subsidiaries include Pepco, Delmarva Power and Atlantic City Electric, which provide regulated electricity service. Delmarva Power also provides natural gas service. The company also supplies wholesale generation services through Conectiv Energy and retail energy products and services through Pepco Energy Services.

One of the biggest areas of focus across all businesses is implementing energy saving solutions at its facilities. The company says it uses green design techniques for planning all new construction and is retrofitting many of its existing facilities.

As an example, PHI’s energy-efficient headquarters earned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2008 ENERGY STAR award. Commercial buildings that earn the ENERGY STAR label use an average of 40 percent less energy and release 35 percent less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than typical buildings.

Key features of the building design include energy-efficient lighting and occupancy sensors in every office to ensure that lighting is not wasted on unoccupied spaces. In addition, all of the building’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning system controls have been designed for maximum energy efficiency.

PHI is also transitioning its vehicle fleet over to environmentally-friendly technologies such as hybrids and alternative-fuel vehicles to cut greenhouse emissions. It is also using biodiesel fuel in vehicles that have a diesel engine.

At individual subsidiaries, as an example, Conectiv Energy’s mid-merit plants are said to be among the cleanest-running power plants in the world by using combustion turbine/combined cycle technology that use environmentally clean fuel and recovered waste heat to increase capacity without the need to consume additional fuel.

Conectiv Energy is also contracting for a share of energy and renewable energy credits (RECs) from a 198-megawatt (MW) wind farm operation in Illinois. The company will buy 50 percent of the wind farm’s output (approximately 100 MW) effective Nov. 1, 2008, through July 1, 2017.

Both Conectiv Energy and Pepco Energy Services are generating power from reclaimed methane gas produced by landfills.

Recently, Pepco Energy Services was awarded a Department of Energy (DOE) new Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Energy Savings Performance Contract (ESPC.) It also contracted with Atlantic City Convention Center to install 13,321 solar panels on 290,000 square feet, or about two-thirds of its rooftop. This installation is claimed to be the largest single-building solar energy project in the U.S. that will generate 2.36 MW of energy, provide more than a quarter of the center’s daily electrical needs, save an estimated $4.4 million in energy costs and reduce its GHG emissions.

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