January 30, 2006

PASADENA WATER AND POWER TAKES
FIRST DELIVERY OF GEOTHERMAL ENERGY

Pasadena Water and Power (PWP) continues to move closer to meeting its Renewable Portfolio Standard of 10 percent renewable energy resources with its first delivery of energy from the Ormat Geothermal Project. PWP received 1 megawatt (MW) of the clean, “green” energy from Ormat on Wednesday, Jan. 26.

The Ormat project is located near the Salton Sea and consists of two separate power generation plants: the Heber Geothermal Facilities and the Ormesa Geothermal Facilities. The Heber facility is completed and once it begins running at full capacity it will provide PWP with 1.5 MW of energy. The Ormesa facility is due to be completed in late 2006 and will supply PWP with another 1.5 MW.

Geothermal energy facilities use steam created when magma heats water deep below the Earth’s surface and forces it up as steam. The steam is then used to create electricity while emitting less than 20 percent of the carbon dioxide produced by natural gas-fueled power plants.
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Through the Southern California Public Power Authority, PWP partnered with Anaheim, Banning, and Glendale to purchase the entire 20 MW output of Ormat’s geothermal plant expansions at their Heber and Ormesa facilities for 25 years.

In October 2003, PWP, a public utility now celebrating its 100th year anniversary, made a commitment that at least 10 percent of its energy supply would come from renewable energy resources by 2010, increasing to at least 20 percent by 2017.

“The Ormat project will eventually provide about 1.8 percent of retail sales when it reaches full capacity,” said Assistant General Manager Eric Klinkner. “Combined with our existing hydro and wind power, we currently receive about 7 percent of our retail energy from renewable resources and nearly 3 percent will be added with the completion of the Ormat project and the Ameresco landfill gas power project in 2007.”