OUC will finish $1M study this year
Commission will resume its analysis of clean energy
Buffeted by COVID-19 outfall, including a spike in overdue customer bills, declining revenues and uncertainty over responding to a hurricane during a pandemic, Orlando Utilities Commission confirmed Tuesday it will resurrect a $1 million study on its future of energy in the face of climate change.
“We are committed to having this process completed by the end of the calendar year,” said OUC’s general manager, Clint Bullock.
The study was suspended amid the rise of stay-at-home sheltering because of the coronavirus.
When completed, the analysis is expected to show a path for OUC’s retirement of its two, flagship power plants in east Orange County. They are marked by a pair of soaring chimneys funneling carbon emissions from burning coal into the atmosphere.
Several groups are pressing OUC to shutter those plants and make up for the loss of energy with solar and energy efficiency.
The utility also
is
responding to goals set by Orlando’s mayor and council members “to power 100% percent of our city using clean, renewable energy sources by the 2050.”
Exactly what that means is somewhat unclear as OUC has begun to label the 2050 goal as obtaining “netzero carbon emissions” by 2050, which may entail continued use of fossil fuels offset by other carbon-reducing measures. Also relying on power plants that run on natural gas, OUC has set what it is calling an intermediate goal of reducing carbon emissions by 2030 to a level that is 50 percent of what they were in 2005.
OUC is ramping up its efforts toward cleaner energy with a big jump in solarpanel operations and adopting cameras and other instruments for micro observations of stormy or cloudy weather that reduces solarpanel output. Bullock said a public workshop will be scheduled during the next several weeks to begin to wrap up the energy study.
“We are going to bring our solutions. We are going to bring our recommendations. We are going to get to the details of this analysis that are so important to our community,” Bullock said. “I would not want anyone in the media or anyone in some of the other groups that are very focused to think otherwise.”
CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK