City of Grand Rapids - Green Power Purchasing Policy

Note: The City of Grand Rapids was named No. 16 on the EPA Top 30 governments list for renewables on October 27, 2014. The city's annual green power usage in kWh is 25,948,200. GP % of total electicity use is 26%. Green power resources are biogas, solar, and wind. Providers are consumer energy and on-site generation.

In 2005, the City of Grand Rapids established a goal of purchasing 20% of its municipal power demand from renewable energy by 2008. In November 2007, the city signed a three-year agreement with a three-year renewable with Consumers Energy to purchase Green-e Certified blocks of renewable energy valued at a reduced rate. The contract was renewed in 2013. This purchase agreement is equivalent to roughly 16% of municipal electricity consumption, which, coupled with the 9% renewable-energy component of Consumer's Energy base load generation makes it 24%.

The city offset the additional cost of this green electricity purchase by exploring energy and cost savings opportunities in cooperation and through energy efficiency efforts with support from grant funds and capital projects. The Mayor has also established a further goal of purchasing 100% of the city's municipal electricity consumption from renewable energy by 2020. Due to significant energy efficiency efforts, and energy consumption reduction, as of November 2014, the city is purchasing 25% of its energy from renewable sources and producing solar renewable onsite. It is also committed to significant energy efficiency in City operations. The city is exploring two additional large scale renewable energy projects and will be issuing Requests For Proposals (RFPs) for both soon.