Green power fuels some Lowcountry businesses

Hilton Head Regional Healthcare has become the biggest buyer of "green power" from Palmetto Electric Cooperative, starting with the hospital company's June bill.

The green power is generated using methane gas from landfills in Horry, Lee and Richland counties.

But, green power customers don't get a special pipeline from those plants to a home or business -- they're buying the same power as the average customer and paying a bit more for it.

The voluntary cost, $6 per 200-kilowatt hour block of power per month for commercial customers, offsets the higher cost of producing the green power and is reinvested in finding and creating additional environmentally friendly power.

The program was created by state-owned utility Santee Cooper in 2001 for the cooperatives in the state to sell green power.

Hilton Head Regional Healthcare, which includes Hilton Head Hospital, Coastal Carolina Hospital, the Bluffton-Okatie Outpatient Center and four other buildings, will buy 67,200 kilowatt hours of power monthly. That represents 20 percent of the hospitals' power needs, said Elizabeth Lamkin, president of the Hilton Head Regional Healthcare.

"And we plan to expand that," she said.

For comparison, the average home uses 1,200 kilowatt hours per month, according to Palmetto Electric.

The decision to purchase green power is part of being a "good citizen" and coincides with efforts by Hilton Head Regional Healthcare to scrutinize and reduce power usage, Lamkin said.

With the addition of the hospitals, Palmetto Electric now sells 124,400 kilowatt hours per month to commercial customers and 70,900 to residential customers, said Tom Trout, key account manager at the cooperative.

Palmetto Electric sells the most green power of the 20 co-ops in the state, Trout said.