Last Updated: December 18, 2013

Overview

The District of Columbia, also known as the city of Washington, is located on the tidal Potomac River between Maryland and Virginia. The capital district was created by an Act of Congress in July 1790 and is under the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States Congress and not a part of any state. Although the District of Columbia occupies a small area–68 square miles including water–its population is greater than that of Wyoming. As is the case for many cities, Washington has a population density greater than that of any state or U.S. territory.

Washington has few energy resources. The city is overwhelmingly an energy consumer as opposed to an energy producer, but it uses less total energy than any state except Vermont. Most of the energy used in Washington is consumed by the commercial sector, which includes the federal buildings, museums, and universities that contribute to the city's commercial activity. In fact, the commercial sector uses twice as much energy as all other sectors combined.

Petroleum

The District of Columbia uses less petroleum than any of the states. The city's two petroleum-fired electricity generation facilities were retired in June 2012. Petroleum is now used almost exclusively by the transportation sector, although a small amount of petroleum is used by the commercial sector and an even lesser amount by the residential and industrial sectors. Because the District of Columbia has no petroleum product pipelines, petroleum products for the transportation and other sectors arrive by pipeline from the Gulf Coast at nearby facilities in Virginia and Maryland. These products can then be trucked into the District.

Motor gasoline sold in the District of Columbia is reformulated motor gasoline blended with ethanol. However, Washington has more alternatively fueled vehicles than over one-half of the states, in part because of the large number of alternatively fueled local and federal government fleet vehicles. To service these vehicles, the District of Columbia has more alternative fueling stations than it has conventional motor gasoline stations.

Natural gas

As with total energy consumption, the commercial sector is the largest natural gas-consuming sector in the District, followed by the residential sector. About three-fifths of District households use natural gas for home heating. Natural gas is used to generate heat for many federal buildings as well. The Government Services Administration's Central Heating Plant heats about 100 buildings in the District using natural gas-fired boilers.

Natural gas is supplied to the District by a single natural gas utility that services the city and the surrounding suburbs in Maryland and Virginia. Pipelines that bring natural gas into the city are part of the local distribution company. No interstate pipelines enter the District. Locally produced manufactured gas made from coal and oil was consumed for more than 80 years before pipelines brought natural gas into the District in 1931. A mixture of natural and manufactured gas was used from 1931 until 1946. After that, manufactured gas was produced intermittently during periods of peak gas demand until the mid-1980s. Demolition of the city's last gas-manufacturing plant was completed in 1986. Several interstate pipelines and a liquefied natural gas port in southern Maryland now supply natural gas to the utility that serves the District.

Coal

There is very little coal consumed in the District of Columbia. The Capitol Power Plant, which began generating electricity in 1910, was originally coal-fired. By 2011 coal provided only 5% of the fuel used by the plant, which now only provides steam for heating and chilled water for cooling the Capitol, the House and Senate office buildings, the Supreme Court building, and other buildings within the Capitol Complex. Although natural gas is now the primary fuel source at the Capitol Power Plant, coal is kept in reserve in case of natural disaster, federal emergency, or fuel shortage.

Electricity

In 2012, the only utility-owned electric generation facilities in the District were retired from service. The two small, petroleum-fired plants had been used for generation only a few hours per year, typically in periods of high demand for electricity. Washington residents now receive electricity from outside of the city through the distribution facilities of a local electric utility that operates in Maryland and the District. However, the Capitol Power Plant, which provided electricity to 23 buildings on Capitol Hill from 1910 until 1951, has recently received the necessary permits to construct a natural gas-fired cogeneration plant.

Retail sales of electricity to residential customers in the District of Columbia are the lowest in the nation. Sales to the commercial sector, however, are much higher, greater than in about one-fifth of the states. Combined total sales of electricity to all types of customers within the District are among the lowest in the nation.

Renewable energy

The District of Columbia is within the tidal range of the Potomac River and is adjacent to the Fall Line that runs along the front of the Appalachian Piedmont. The waterfalls on the Fall Line in neighboring states potentially could provide renewable energy to the District. Currently, the nature of the city and its density of development provide many rooftops for solar installations. In February 2009, the District Department of the Environment introduced the Renewable Energy Incentive Program, a rebate program for solar photovoltaic systems. One of the largest solar power panel installations in Washington is located on the roof of the U.S. Department of Energy's Forrestal headquarters building. The panels generate about 230 megawatthours of electricity per year.

As the result of energy efficiency efforts, Washington ranks second among the nation's cities in its number of Energy Star certified buildings. Only the much larger city of Los Angeles has more. An Energy Star certified building meets strict energy performance standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency and uses less energy, costs less to operate, and produces fewer greenhouse gas emissions than comparable buildings. Washington's Energy Star efforts include many federal buildings.

In 2005, the District of Columbia adopted a renewable portfolio standard that was later amended several times. It requires that 20% of all retail electricity sales in the District come from renewable sources by 2020. Additionally, the standard requires that not less than 2.5% of retail electricity sales must be generated from solar resources by 2023. The standard applies to both the investor-owned electric utility that services the District and to any retail suppliers. Qualifying technologies are solar water heat, solar space heat, solar thermal electric, solar thermal process heat, photovoltaics, landfill gas, wind, biomass, hydroelectric, geothermal electric, municipal solid waste, solar space cooling, tidal energy, wave energy, ocean thermal, and fuel cells using renewable fuels.