Case Studies: Green Mountain Power Co.
Rebecca Towne
Operations Project Manager
Green Mountain Power Co.
Colchester, Vermont
Rebecca Towne supervises the fleet and oversees operations and performance at Green Mountain Power, which has been doing business in Vermont for one hundred years. GMP primarily deals in transmission and distribution of power as well as doing some power production in a few of their plants (hydro, fuel and wind). They are the largest such facility in the state and have 90,000 customers and 200 employees.
Rebecca attended a fleet conference in February where the topic of biodiesel was being discussed and she came away inspired to get a program going (at GMP). When she took up her new position in early 2005 she was quite pleased to find that the fleet department at Green Mountain already planned to do a trial run using B20. One of the three core values that the company holds is that of environmental responsibility and they are looking to make biodiesel a key component. The motivation for implementing this change was to lower fuel emissions and they were helped along in the decision by the federal tax credit that reduced the cost of biodiesel.
Of their 80 diesel fleet vehicles, 65 of them have been using B20 since August of 2005. They have 2 underground diesel storage facilities, one in Colchester and one in Montpelier and they receive about 7000 gallons of diesel every 6 weeks: amounting to almost 70,000 gallons B20 over the next year. In order to find a fuel dealer that could supply Green Mountain Power they have recently switched to Champlain Oil Company. Rebecca has "great confidence (in the product now) that a company with such a notable reputation for quality and service has incorporated biodiesel into their business."
For many maintenance people, biodiesel remains an unknown and therefore can generate worries about what affect it may have on the equipment. But so far there have been no complaints. There have been a couple of reports of vehicles that may be getting slightly less mileage per gallon but they'll be tracking this more closely to find out if it's an issue. The vehicles running on biodiesel aren't experiencing a diminishment in power or performance.
Rebecca attended the June Biodiesel Workshop at the Law School and in her words, was "completely blown away" by the contacts, information and general excitement there. "That one day at the conference was honestly the catalyst that got it all moving."
The company takes pride in being a leader and hopefully an example and model for other utilities companies who might consider using biodiesel. Rebecca is personally excited about the agricultural potential as well as the environmental one for Vermont. She's been spreading the word widely—to friends, fuel dealers and co-workers, and is hoping to initiate biodiesel use in their power generation plants in the near future.