This article was originally published in The University Press, Lamar University’s student newspaper, on Sept. 20, 2018.
Story by Eleanor Skelton
UP contributor
With all the talk of climate change in the news, many people are turning to alternative “green” energy sources.
Arcadia Power aims to connect people with renewable energy sources for those passionate about green energy by acting as an intermediary between customers and energy providers.
Customers pay Arcadia, who in turn pays the utility company, keeping consumer’s electric bills the same, while ensuring that some or all of their usage is powered by wind. This model creates a way to power a home with green energy besides attaching a solar panel to the roof or putting a wind mill in the yard.
“It’s our ultimate goal to make investing in green energy as affordable as possible,” Arcadia Power public relations manager Natalie Rizk said. “We want to make sure that everybody (can participate) — not just the Googles and the Amazons of the world, even renters.”
The company offers a number of options on their website, including a free plan that guarantees 50 percent of a dwelling’s electricity will be sourced by wind power at no additional cost without changing the existing electric company. A premium plan charges by kilowatt hour to replace 100 percent of your energy with wind power. Neither plan has any commitment or cancellation fees.
Someone who used 500 kWh in January would have 250 kWh of wind power added to the grid with the free plan, and 500 kWh added under the premium plan, Arcadia Power CEO Kiran Bhatraju said in an email statement.
“I’m a big fan of the program,” Lamar Office of Sustainability director Alicen Flosi said. “It’s a good idea, because then you don’t have to put in solar panels and if you move you can take it with you.”
Flosi said she signed up for the plan that covers 100 percent of the energy in her home.
“I pay a little more, but to me it’s worth it to use renewable energy,” she said.
Arcadia Power also offers a solar community allowing customers to purchase a share of a community-owned solar panel and save on the monthly bill for renters in homes and apartments that couldn’t normally use solar power and energy efficiency products like Nest thermostats and LED lighting.
Arcadia monitors local energy markets to find lower energy rates and notify customers with email alerts, Rizk said.
When customers sign up online, they receive monthly statements by email. The company auto-drafts the payment three days later and sends the funds to the utility company. Arcadia advises customers to pay any outstanding balances and cancel automatic billing with their utility company before activating the service. Customers’ energy usage and how much is replaced by renewable sources is available in their online account.
The power going in and out of the grid is the same, Rizk said.
“It’s just electrons,” she said.
Flosi said that while she has the 100-percent plan, she understands that college students may want to go with the free option. “As long as people are doing something, that’s great,” she said. “Maybe this is an option so that we’re using renewable energy. I think it’s great for college students, renters and apartment people.”
A Renewable Energy Certificate is created every time one megawatt hour of renewable energy is generated, according to Arcadia’s website, and are also used by government officials to track renewable energy.
RECs can be purchased by individuals, but Arcadia purchases them for customers to save them the hassle, Rizk said.
“It’s a shared-savings model, so we are able to share in the savings that we provide for our members,” she said.
Arcadia Power is based out of Washington, D.C. and includes more than 175,000 members from all 50 states, Bhatraju said. The company, founded in 2014, is BBB accredited.
There’s a small subset of people who only qualify for premium membership, Rizk said, but Arcadia tries to make their services as free and affordable for everyone as possible.
According to the most recent reports from Arcadia Power, their members have generated more than 300 gigawatt hours of clean energy and have averted more than 250,000 tons of CO2 emissions to date. The company brands itself as, “The new face of the utility bill.”
AEP Swepco and Entergy Texas service most utility customers in Southeast Texas and all of those customers qualify for free and premium wind plans, Bhatraju said. Arcadia Power currently has members in 24 Texas metro areas.
Arcadia works directly with wind projects, including several in Texas — Panther Creek Wind Farm, Papalote Wind Farm, Penascal II and Pyron Wind Farm.
Entergy Texas has received several customer inquiries through social media about Arcadia Power, Kacee Kirschvink, Entergy communication specialist, said.
Energy companies produce or buy power on the market for their customers, she said. Entergy has a net metering policy for renewable energy sources, including solar and wind power.
“The Public Utility Commission of Texas sets the rate we pay customers for renewable power,” she said.
Entergy’s power sources are varied, but include about 2 million megawatt hours of renewable energy, Kirschvink said. The company’s renewable sources are hydro, solar, biomass, landfill gas, waste heat recovery and wind renewable energy credits, which represent about 2 percent of generation sources used to meet utility demand in 2017.
“While still a small portion of our utility generation, technological advances are making renewable energy as well as certain distributed energy resources increasingly cost-competitive,” she said.
The Houston market is deregulated, meaning that customers can choose which utility company to sign up with, but Beaumont is in a regulated market since the rates are set by the Public Utility Commission, Kirschvink said.
“We understand that some customers like to have renewable energy as an option for their electric generation, and we continue to look at ways to provide clean, affordable and reliable energy for our customers,” she said. “Entergy is a leader in clean generation. More than half of the energy we supply to meet utility demand comes from efficient natural gas-fired generation and clean nuclear generation.”
Entergy Texas provides electricity to about 450,000 customers in 27 counties and owns and operates power plants with about 30,000 megawatts of generating capacity, including nearly 9,000 megawatts of nuclear power.
“There’s all types of technologies out there and it’s getting cheaper as technology progresses,” she said. “The whole industry is changing — it’s an interesting time to be part of the electric utility industry.”
The idea behind sustainability is reduce, reuse and recycle, Flosi said.
“Try not to use as much energy,” she said. “Whatever energy you use, try to use renewable.”
For more information on green energy, visit arcadiapower.com and entergy.com.
Eleanor Skelton 