No coal for MEA

Frontiersman

PALMER — It will be a coal-free Christmas for Matanuska Electric Association.

In fact, the next five will be. MEA’s board of directors voted Monday evening to shelve plans to build a 100-megawatt, coal-fired generation plant by 2015. The board voted 5-1, with board vice president Larry DeVilbiss lending the lone dissenting voice to the official record.

The move comes a month after MEA General Manager Wayne Carmony drafted a recommendation the electric cooperative postpone part of its power generation plan. The original plan called for two 100-megawatt generation plants, one gas-fired, the other fueled by coal. A new Mat-Su Borough ordinance regulating the building of power plants and the increasing costs of building and operating coal plants worldwide made the change necessary, Carmony said.

“I would question our ability to have a coal plant up by Jan. 1, 2015,” he said. “I believe what I’m proposing here is the best alternative. Either we choose to delay it or it’s delayed for us.”

The board’s vote also directs Carmony and MEA staff to identify specific options to replace the 100 megawatts of power for which it planned.

MEA is moving forward with its plans to build a gas-fired plant, Carmony said. A site just south of Palmer along the Old Glenn Highway that is home to gravel pit had been pegged by MEA as its preferred site to locate its power generation plants. That also may change.

“We would like to go forward with the site acquisition as soon as we can,” Carmony said. Whether a potential location is suitable to site a coal plant in the future is not a consideration now.

“Whether or not it is suitable for a coal plant we won’t know,” he said, adding that should MEA pursue coal in the future, it could be a separate project. “It [could] very well mean we could be looking at separate facilities instead of one combined facility.”

While he made the board’s original motion to open debate on the proposal to shovel coal to the backburner, DeVilbiss said there’s no reason to not continue with the plan that two years of study and research says is right for MEA. If Borough regulations and the marketplace mean it takes longer, then it takes longer. DeVilbiss also is concerned about a shortage of natural gas and whether MEA should put all its eggs in that basket.

“I really believe we’re sailing into a perfect storm here,” he said. “I’m not convinced [about the costs and Borough restrictions]. I’ve heard the manager’s argument. I feel if we [alter the original plan] by 2020 we’re going to be asking people to turn their lights off. We may be buying gas from Indonesia.”

Board member David Dahms shared that concern and spoke out against Carmony’s recommendation before finally voting for it.

“Agrium [at Cook Inlet] closed because of a gas shortage,” he said. “If they can’t keep the one industry we have open at Cook Inlet, how [can MEA rely on it in five years]? I’m worried for this. I’m fearful we’re going to have a plant and there’s not going to be any fuel for it.”

Board Treasurer Peter Burchell said he believes there are gas reserves.

“Those fears are real, but I have faith natural gas will be there,” he said, adding it’s likely to also be more expensive.

However much natural gas may cost, coal is sure to cost more, Burchell said, citing increasing and pending taxes on emissions.

“Those costs have gone crazy,” he said. “I like this plan [of Carmony’s] because it doesn’t close any doors, but gives us time to consider our options.”

Board member David Glines agreed, saying Carmony and his staff deserve some trust that they know what they’re doing.

“I’m not willing to debate the goodness or badness of a coal plant,” he said, adding that realistically, “We’re not going to run out of gas.”.