Climate and Energy Action Plan (CEAP)

City of Ashland – Greenhouse Gas Inventory (2011 – 2015) 30 INVENTRORY RESULTS Because BPA electricity supplies the majority of the City’s demand – the results of this inventory are fairly straightforward. • The carbon intensity – as defined by The Climate Registry’s Electric Power Sector Protocol - of Ashland’s Municipal Utility’s supply is very small (0.039 MT CO2e / MWh) relative to the Northwest Power Pool (NWPP) regional grid (0.30 MT CO2e / MWh), as a result of the following; o BPA’s electricity generation, which supplies 98% of the community’s demand, is dominated by low-carbon hydro and nuclear resources (90% of total), which do not emit GHGs.11 See Figure A1 for details on BPA resource mix. o The remaining 10% of BPA generation is served by the average regional electricity supply, which includes coal and natural gas generation. It’s these purchases -made by BPA to serve the requirements of its contracts with Ashland - that result in the only source of GHG emissions in Ashland’s Utility’s supply portfolio. o The City of Ashland’s owned-generation hydro resources provide the remaining 2% of the City’s demand, which do not emit GHGs. • While Ashland is served by BPA power via long-term contracts for electricity, the environmental benefits of BPA power are shared and accounted for in the average carbon intensity of our regional electricity grid, the Northwest Power Pool. • While BPA resources are low-carbon, they do not generate Renewable Energy Certificates (REC)12, nor is any ownership of the low-carbon of benefits from BPA transferred to Ashland’s Municipal Utility or the Ashland Community, except for the following exception: o On behalf of the community, The City of Ashland does purchase BPA’s Environmentally Preferable Product for a premium at a quantity equal to 5% of the Ashland community’s annual consumption. The Environmentally Preferable 11 Hydro and nuclear power generation do not produce any emissions at the point of generation. That said they do produce upstream emissions, in the gathering of the uranium for nuclear power; methane emissions from dam reservoirs. These upstream emissions are not included in TRC’s Electric Sector Protocol. 12 Renewable Energy Certificates or RECs are a contractual means of transferring ownership of the environmental benefit associated with qualifying renewable electricity generation. BPA$Nuclear$13.09%$BPA$Other$(Average$Regional$Electricity)$5.46%$Ashland$Hydro$0.76%$Ashland$Solar$0.05%$BPA$Hydro$80.64%$ Figure A1: Sources of electricity supply for Ashland Municipal Electric Utility.