Energy, Texas (Population 65)
Small West Texas community mirrors rural utility co-op challenges
Conventional and Alternative Energy Percentages
Texas Power Grid
Net Electricity Generation by Source
| Source | 2006 | 2009 |
|---|---|---|
| Oil | 0.4% | <0.1% |
| Natural Gas | 48.4% | 53.6% |
| Coal | 36.5% | 31.4% |
| Nuclear | 10.3% | 9.3% |
| Hydro-electric | 0.2% | 0.5% |
| Other Renewables* | 2.0% | 4.0% |
| Other | 0.3% | 0.2% |
Source: Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration
*Other renewables include wood, black liquor, other wood waste, biogenic municipal solid waste, landfill gas, sludge waste, agriculture byproducts, other biomass, geothermal, solar thermal, photovoltaic energy,and wind.
Read about Texas’ place in the solar race.
Energy, an unincorporated community of 65 in Comanche County, got its name more than a century ago because it overflowed with an impressive source of renewable power: elbow grease.
Store owners Will and Charlie Baxter dubbed the town, Energy, in 1896 inspired by the go-getters who settled there, rather than a rich cache of fossil fuels beneath the dirt. They didn’t know that more than a century later it would be a microcosm of the power challenges facing rural electric co-operatives.
“There are great folks there in Energy, but if you look at some of the new technologies, they can’t really afford them right now,” says Alan Lesley, interim general manager of Comanche Electric Cooperative Association (CECA). “Those folks are dependent on Comanche and Brazos Electric Cooperative to provide that. At least for now.”
That’s one challenge facing the nonprofit CECA, which serves about 9,000 customers with a $27.5 million annual operating budget.
Founded in 1938 as part of the federal Rural Electrification Administration, CECA faces indirect pressure from the Texas Renewable Portfolio Standard (TRPS), which calls for all utilities to produce their share of 5,880 MW of renewable energy by 2015.
That onus directly falls on CECA’s supplier, Brazos Electric, a 3,052 MW co-op that provides power to 18 utilities across 68 counties, from the Panhandle to Houston.
In summer 2009, Brazos Electric became a charter member of the National Renewables Co-op, designed to help its 24 members meet TRPS standards.
CECA, which is located near the epicenter of Texas wind and solar potential, wants to take advantage of those renewables – but the high start-up costs and a smaller revenue base make it difficult to justify a “pay now, save later” approach for the residents of energy and its neighbors.
Lesley says some residents have installed wind turbines at their own cost and are looking to sell energy to the utility.
“That’s a good idea, and there’s some probability in that as technology improves,” he says. “Right now, the rate of return is not there.”
CECA is considering rate adjustments for the second time since 1993, going to a rate design that it hopes will help eliminate disincentives to conserve energy.
“We may be slower than some, but we’re coming to it,” Lesley says. TR
Learn about CECA’s fee structure and community programs.