ELECTRICITY
Figure 4. California’s Out-of-state Coal-fired Powerplants
IMPORTS AND EXPORTS TO
Boardman
CALIFORNIA The EIA data for coal consumption used above did not account for interstate commerce of electricity. As a result, the value for coal in California’s electricity
Inter-mountain Power Project
mix was only 1%. However, according to the California Energy Commission, coal represented 15% of the
Bonanza Hunter
Reid Gardner
state’s electricity mix. Almost all the coal used by
Navajo
California electricity consumers is combusted at outof-state powerplants, and the electricity is imported
San Juan
Four Corners Mohave Power Plant
from neighboring states. This occurs at several large powerplants located in Utah, Nevada, and Arizona (Figure 4). The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s eGrid data listed the specific coal-fired power plants, the percentage ownership by California utilities, and
M a p c r e a t e d b y M i k e S a n d l e r b a s e d o n d a t a f r o m 2 0 0 5 S t a t e E n e rg y P r o f i l e s , E n e rg y I n f o r m a t i o n A g e n c y ; 2 0 0 5 e G r i d , U S E PA
megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity generated from coal in 2005. Imported coal-produced electricity costs were estimated using the MIT-EPPA model, added to California, and subtracted from the neighboring states. MWH are converted into tonnage of coal using the
Figure 5. Out-of-state Coal consumed by CA Utilities
average heat transfer of 6,150 MWH/ton and the typical coal powerplant efficiency coefficient of 40
60,000,000
percent. The resulting 2,460 tons per MWH is similar
Inter-mountain Power Project
50,000,000
electricity found in Metcalf (2007) and 2,395 used by Green, Hayward and Hassett (2007). The resulting tonnage of coal is converted to dollars following Paltsev (2007) as described above in the methodology section. It is subtracted from the exporting states’ total, and added to California’s total (Figure 6).
36
S h or t Tons Co al
to the 2,376 pounds of CO2 per megawatt hour of
40,000,000 Mohave Power Plant
30,000,000 Four Corners
20,000,000 San Juan
10,000,000 0
Navajo
Reid Gardner
Boardman Bonanza Hunter