Crystal Thomas
The State Journal-Register
For years, the city has talked about making a long-term plan for City Water, Light and Power, which would include studying when to retire its older coal-fired units and what other energy resources would take their place. The city is on the cusp of awarding the study to nonprofit corporation, The Energy Authority, but an alderman Tuesday said the contract should have gone out for bid and worried TEA presented a “conflict of interest,” since it is also the city’s agent in buying and selling electricity off the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, known as the transmission grid.
“I feel like we’ve pushed The Energy Authority from day one, and I just feel like it’s wrong,” Ward 10 Ald. Ralph Hanauer said.
TEA is financed by public power companies that generate energy through all different kinds of resources, including coal, like CWLP. If approved for the $210,000 contract, TEA would have six months to study CWLP and how the utility should move forward for the next 20 years. It would look at the utility’s economic forecast, while also weighing the cost of complying with environmental regulations and keeping up with renewable energy requirements.
The question of when CWLP’s power generators will be retired has been discussed for years. Dallman Power Station units 31, 32, and 33 are all older than 40 years and aldermen frequently pass ordinances to make emergency repairs. TEA’s integrated resource plan will include a recommendation to the mayor and the city council, which will decide which direction the city wants to go.
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It irked Hanauer that CWLP hasn’t given aldermen a straightforward answer on how much the cost of generation per megawatt hour is for the utility. He said whichever company received the contract needed to look at staffing and the cost of labor.
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Ward 7 Ald. Joe McMenamin said TEA’s monthly flat fee erased any conflict of interest in his mind.
“Their advice to us, it seems to me, is going to be neutral to them whether they gain or lose financially as to our decision of whether we maintain a strong portfolio of generation or reduce our portfolio of generation capacity,” he said.
Aldermen could vote as soon as Tuesday’s city council meeting to contract with TEA.
Joe McMenamin for Ward 7 