Grand Marais Public Utilities allows customers to offset their electricity use by purchasing renewable energy certificates (RECs). Each REC represents the environmental benefits of 1 kilowatt-hour of renewable energy. Grand Marais PUC purchases RECs on behalf of customers through its electricity supplier, the Southern Minnesota Municipal Power Agency (SMMPA)

How to participate in the Green Power Purchasing program:

To offset the carbon footprint of your own electricity you can ask the Grand Marais PUC to add RECs to your monthly bill. The PUC sells RECs at $1.12 per kilowatt. They will appear on a customer’s monthly utility bill as ‘Renewable Energy’. 

How many RECs should I buy?

To calculate how many RECs will cover your electricity use, convert the usage reported on a monthly utility bill from kilowatt hours (kWh) to kilowatts kW, see example below. On your bill, kWh can be found as a number in the ‘ELECTRIC USE’ row under the Usage column. It is best to refer to a bill with average or above average electricity use.

--kilowatt hours divided by time in hours equals kilowatts

Example: A customer’s electric usage on their utility bill reads 1290 for a 30 day billing period. There are 720 hours in 30 day (24 x 30 = 720), so the customer divides 1290 by 720 and gets 1.79. Since RECs can only be bought in whole numbers, this rounds up to 2. In this example the customer would ask for 2 RECs to be added to their monthly bill for a total additional charge of $2.24 per month. 

To add RECs to your monthly utility bill, please fill out the following form.

If you have any questions concerning Green Power Purchasing contact Shane Steele at sustainability@grandmarais.city or call City Hall (218)387-1848.