Green Power Partnership
|Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission|
|Organization Type||Govt. (Local, Municipal)|
|Annual Green Power Usage (kWh)||59,952,598|
|Percentage Green Power||28%|
|Partner's Reporting Period||1/1/2013 - 12/31/2013|
|Latest Annual Report Received On||12/8/2014|
|Environmental Web Page|
The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) is the 8th largest water and wastewater utility in the United States. It currently uses more than 61 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year of green power, providing approximately 30% of its electricity, in the form of wind and solar power.
WSSC locked in a fixed price for generation over a 10 year period by committing to a long term purchase power agreement (through its supplier) with a 29.1 MW wind farm developer in Somerset County, Pennsylvania in 2008. WSSC takes 85% of the hourly output generated by the wind farm, which compliments their real time purchasing strategy for brown power. WSSC's 85% wind portion reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 38,000 tonnes/yr, sulfur dioxide by 580,000 lb/yr, and Nitric Oxide by 188,000 lb/yr.
In 2012, WSSC negotiated a Purchase Power Agreement with Washington Gas Energy Systems to design, build, own and operate two 2 MW solar photovoltaic power systems at wastewater treatment plants in Prince George's and Montgomery Counties. The project was completed and the systems became operational in October 2013. The two solar installations have reduced WSSC's carbon footprint by 3,200 tonnes and are expected to save the Commission approximately $3.5 million over the life of the 20 year contract.