City of Palo Alto's Green Energy Program #1 in Country

Northern California Power Agency Member Uses Public-Private
Partnerships to Reduce CO2 Emissions, Enhance Green Energy Usage
ROSEVILLE, Calif.--(Business Wire)--The City of Palo Alto recently celebrated its ranking as the
number one renewable energy program in the U.S., according to the
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). PaloAltoGreen, a
voluntary green energy purchasing program, now boasts a membership of
one in five ratepayers. While the national average for enrollment in
similar programs is less than two percent, PaloAltoGreen saw a five
percent membership increase in 2007.

The City of Palo Alto, a leading member of the Northern California
Power Agency (NCPA), launched PaloAltoGreen five years ago. For an
additional 1.5 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh), community ratepayers can
volunteer to enroll in the green energy program. Annually, the City's
utility department purchases nearly 41.5 million kWh of clean energy,
which offsets approximately 700 million pounds of harmful carbon
dioxide.

"The City of Palo Alto is a leading example of the benefits of
municipal utilities participating in green energy programs," said Jim
Pope, general manager of NCPA. "Renewable energy public-private
partnerships enable municipal utilities to offer the type of smart
green energy pricing programs that ratepayers more often respond to --
and more importantly -- are enormously effective in reducing CO2
emissions."

The city estimates that the average additional residential monthly
expense to ratepayers in the program is less than ten dollars a month
to purchase 100 percent renewable energy. With the city's emphasis on
providing sustainable, reliable, and affordable electric power
service, the participants in PaloAltoGreen, even after paying this
premium, still pay less than the Pacific Gas & Electric Company
standard rate.

Combining green energy purchasing policies with a simple
enrollment plan, PaloAltoGreen demonstrates that increasing renewable
energy usage and reducing greenhouse gas emissions can be economic and
practical when the public and private sectors work together. The clean
energy program attracts participation from business as well, with more
than 100 local businesses participating in PaloAltoGreen.

PaloAltoGreen purchases a California blend of renewable energy
from wind and solar generators in Davis, Pleasanton, San Ramon and
Solano County. 97.5 percent of it is from wind with the remaining 2.5
percent from solar.

NREL, which is the nation's primary laboratory for renewable
energy and energy efficiency research and development, releases
"Top-10" rankings of the nation's best performing renewable energy
programs annually.

NCPA is a nonprofit California joint powers agency established in
1968 to generate, transmit, and distribute electric power to and on
behalf of its fifteen members: the Cities of Alameda, Biggs, Gridley,
Healdsburg, Lodi, Lompoc, Palo Alto, Redding, Roseville, Santa Clara,
and Ukiah; the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), the Port
of Oakland, the Truckee Donner Public Utility District, and the
Turlock Irrigation District; and two associate members: the Placer
County Water Agency and the Plumas-Sierra Rural Electric Cooperative,
serving nearly 700,000 electric consumers in Central and Northern
California. For more information, please visit www.ncpa.com.

Northern California Power Agency
Alex Leupp, 916-781-4222
alex.leupp@ncpa.com
Linda Clerkson, 650-329-2656
linda.clerkson@cityofpaloalto.org

Copyright Business Wire 2008