LIPA Opens Green Power Enrollment

Green Marketers Ready to Sell Renewable Energy Attributes

Wind, Hydro & Bio-Energy Now Available To LIPA Customer

Sen. Norman J. Levy Park, Merrick, NY – August 19, 2004 – The Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) announced today that its Green Choice Program is now open for enrollment. The program, available to LIPA customers only, will foster the development and sale of electricity generated from renewable energy resources such as wind, hydro and bioenergy.

LIPA’s Green Choice Program – part of Governor George Pataki’s statewide effort to promote renewable energy technologies – will encourage the sale of the “environmental attributes” associated with renewable energy resources by Green Power Marketers to LIPA customers. In turn, under this voluntary program, LIPA’s customers may elect to purchase the Green Power environmental attributes directly from the Green Power Marketers.

“ LIPA is enthused that with the help of the three Green Power Marketers currently participating in the program we can work together to encourage the development and sale of more renewable energy technologies within New York State,” said LIPA Chairman Richard M. Kessel. “Governor Pataki should be commended for pushing renewables, especially at a time when oil prices are at record highs.”

“With the ever-increasing price of fossil fuels being reported daily, we need to foster the development and growth of ‘Green Power,’ or electricity produced from renewable resources, as a viable, environmental and economic alternative,” said Mr. Kessel. “LIPA’s customers can now actively support the development of ‘Green Power’ by signing up with a Green Marketer of their choice to encourage and invest in renewable technologies.”

“ LIPA’s Green Choice Program is an important initiative that increases usage of renewable energy and raises the level of awareness regarding the need to reduce our reliance on non-renewable energy sources,” said Hempstead Town Supervisor Kate Murray. “Our township is committed to ecologically responsible energy usage, employing wind power and moving ahead with a solar energy program. We are even harvesting methane and the closed Oceanside Landfill and remarketing the energy to LIPA.”

“ It’s great news that electricity generated from renewable energy is now easily available for all Long Islanders!” said Adrienne Esposito, Executive Director, Citizens Campaign for the Environment. “The public will be directly involved in deciding the future of renewable energy verses harmful fossil fuels and nuclear power. If Long Island wants clean, safe, renewable energy then we need to buy it!”

“ LIPA’s Green Choice Program empowers Long Islanders by providing the option for families to choose alternative sources of energy generation that are less polluting,” said Chris O’Connor, Program Coordinator, LI Neighborhood Network. “The Neighborhood Network is excited that LIPA is providing people with the opportunity to make the cleaner choice, and we believe many Long Islanders will voluntarily select preferences that are consistent with protecting the environment.”

“ This type of program, which preserves and protects our natural resources, will not only benefit Long Island but the entire region,” said Senator Charles J. Fuschillo, Jr. “The Green Choice program will give many Long Islanders the ability to light their house and be environmentally conscious.”

“LIPA’s innovative Green Choice Program is to be commended as an environmentally sound program which permits customers to purchase energy from alternative sources, thereby giving the consumer the choice of where their electric power is coming from,” said Assemblyman David G. McDonough.

“As Chairman of the Nassau County Legislature’s Planning Development and Environment Committee, I’ve brought to the attention of the county the ability through LIPA to utilize renewable energy. These sources include upstate wind farms, where renewable energy is generated for the needs of Long Island,” said Nassau County Legislator, 19th District, David Denenberg.

Participating Green Marketers
LIPA also welcomed three participating Green Marketers, Community Energy, EnviroGen and Sterling Planet to the program. Each marketer completed a LIPA application stating it will: comply with all the provisions of LIPA’s Tariff and with any written agreement between the Green Marketer and LIPA; be listed with the New York State Public Service Commission (“NYSPSC”) as an Energy Service Company (“ESCO”); and be in compliance with the Electronic Data Interchange (“EDI”) standards.

Furthermore, the Green Marketers entered into a Billing Services Agreement with LIPA, which set forth the terms and conditions governing the rights and obligations of the marketer and the customer.

"Community Energy is proud to offer all Long Island residents and businesses the opportunity to purchase pollution-free, wind-generated electricity in LIPA's ground-breaking LIPA Green Choice Program", said Brent Alderfer, President of Community Energy, Inc., the nation's leading provider of wind power. "NewWind Energy® is home-grown, fuel-free New York State electric power. The more customers that sign up, the more wind energy will come on-line; and that means healthier communities for all of us.”

“LIPA’s Green Choice renewable energy program is an easy, convenient way to conserve resources, control where electricity comes from and choose to make a difference,” said Mel Jones, President and Chief Executive Officer of Sterling Plant. “It will help keep electricity production local to New York, support local jobs and economies, reduce dependence on
imported energy, broaden the energy mix and increase energy security. Renewable energy is here, it’s now and it’s real – with robust, industrial-strength blends you can really depend upon.”

LIPA will be supporting the Green Choice Program with a multi-faceted public education campaign that will include inserts in monthly billing statements to all 1.1 million customers; newspaper advertisements; and a special Web site section that’s available to interested customers 24/7.

How LIPA’s Green Choice Program Will Work:
LIPA will work with the New York State Public Service Commission to quantify the environmental attributes of electricity generated from these renewable resources. This helps ensure that when customers sign up to buy green power that that power actually gets generated within New York State and fed into the state’s electric grid. Customers who sign up for LIPA’s Green Choice program will get Environmental Disclosure Labels from their Green Marketers. The labels will indicate the benefit of the option the customer selected by showing the relative air emissions of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxides and nitrogen oxides versus the average emissions.

After selecting a Green Marketer, customers select one of several renewable energy options. Depending on the option, the customer pays his or her Green Marketer an additional ½ cent to 2 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) for the environmental attributes. The options range from a mix of wind, hydro and bioenergy to pure wind. For customer convenience, LIPA includes the additional Green Choice charges on its statement. As a result, the customer is not burdened with a separate bill from the Green Marketer. LIPA collects and passes along the additional charges to the marketer. Since LIPA passes the entire Green Power payment on to the marketer, LIPA does not profit from the program, and customers do not subsidize the program in any way. Most of LIPA’s retail electric customers will be able to participate in the program.

Each participating Green Marketer offers customers unique renewable energy options:

• Community Energy, Inc. offers two options: the first is NewWindEnergy .It’s 100% wind at an additional cost of 2 cents/kWh. The other, NewWindEnergy and Water, is a 60% wind and 40% small scale hydropower and costs 1 cent/kWh.
• Sterling Planet offers two options: the first is Sterling Green and is 40% wind, 30% small-scale hydropower and 30% bioenergy. It sells for an additional 1.5 cents/kWh. The second option is New York Clean which is 10% Wind, 55% hydropower, and 35% bioenergy at a rate of 1 cent/kWh.”
• Envirogen offers one option called Green Power Program. It is 75% bioenergy and 25% small-scale hydropower. It sells for an additional 1 cent/kWh.

Each option allows a customer to have either all or half of his or her electric usage billed at the additional “Green Power” charge selected.

Switching
Customers participating in the program will be able to change Green Marketers subsequent to their initial Green Marketer selection. They may discontinue participation in the program at any time provided they notify LIPA at least 10 calendar days before the first of the month for which the discontinuation is to be effective.

For more information on the Green Choice program and LIPA’s electric conservation and efficiency, visit www.lipower.org.

LIPA, a non-profit municipal electric utility, owns the retail electric system on Long Island and provides electric service to nearly 1.1 million customers in Nassau and Suffolk counties, and the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens. LIPA does not own any on-island generation assets and does not provide natural gas service.

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