The worst-ranked utilities for clean energy

Some utilities are deploying renewables and improving energy efficiency as fast as they can. Others are not.

Benchmarking Utility Clean Energy, a new report from sustainability advocacy non-profit Ceres and cleantech market research firm Clean Edge, ranks the 32 largest investor-owned electric utility companies according to renewable and efficiency deployments. These companies and their subsidiaries accounted for about 68% of U.S. retail electricity sales in 2012, according to the report.

The performance of these 32 companies today and going forward will go a long way to determining how fast the U.S. electric power sector can meet the EPA's proposed 30% CO2 emissions reduction target by 2030 and mitigate the imminent impacts of climate change.

For the five lowest ranked utilities for renewables -- SCANA, Southern Company, Dominion Resources, AES and Entergy -- renewable energy sales accounted for less than 2% of each of their total retail electricity sales for the year. Compare that to the top ranked utilities for whom renewables accounted for approximately 17-21% of their retail electricity sales in 2012.

The discrepancy is at least partly explained by very aggressive renewable portfolio standards in the West, where all the top ranked utilities are located, and the comparatively weak renewable targets in the Southeast, where many of the bottom ranked utilities are located.

The same goes for energy efficiency. The lowest-ranked companies were Public Service Enterprise Group, SCANA, Florida Power & Light, Pepco Holdings, Dominion Resources, Entergy and Southern Company – many of the same companies that ranked toward the bottom for renewables.

It’s no surprise that many of these companies are located in the Southeast, where the region’s energy efficiency policies are much like its renewable portfolio standards – weaker than in other states.

It all comes down to a “lack of policy,” Jon Wellinghoff, former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and partner at Stoel Rives, told Utility Dive in an interview.

“It’s been nothing that the utilities have done per se,” Wellinghoff said. “Those places that don’t have those regulatory policies that provide for utilities expanding those resources, then you don’t see it happen.”

“There’s no utility that has an inherent incentive to improve the efficiency of its customer,” he added, “because, for the most part, that reduces revenues to the utility by reducing sales.”

While utility deployments of renewables and efficiency are largely driven by incentives and mandates, many utilities are concerned about the possibility of stranded assets.

That is a valid concern, Wellinghoff said, "but that’s the risk that these investor-owned utilities take when they make those investments. Those are risks their shareholders will have to bear.”