For more than a decade, the idea of Lakeland Electric purchasing or producing nuclear power to provide electricity to customers has been talked about.
Now the city’s taking a small step that could make that a reality in the future.
Lakeland commissioners will vote June 2 on whether to accept a $125,000 Demonstration of Energy and Efficiency Developments grant from the American Public Power Association. With the funding, Lakeland Electric would develop a framework for an early site permitting process that other municipal utilities could follow for nuclear technology.
“We want to make sure Lakeland Electric is flexible enough if nuclear technology grows up and if we get to a point where Lakeland choses to go nuclear, we are able to do so,” said Mike Dammer, LE’s manager of emerging technology. “Why start the process in 15 years if we can do part of the work now?”
With the funds, Dammer said Lakeland Electric will receive the APPA’s assistance from experienced nuclear professionals in evaluating the utility’s land sites and conducting environmental studies to determine their suitability as future locations for different kinds of nuclear power plants and technology.
“Many of the APPA member utilities are in the same boat we’re in: We have no nuclear knowledge, with no nuclear background but are interested in nuclear going forward,” he said.
Building on research by the national nonprofit Electric Power Research Institute, Deputy City Attorney Ramona Sirianni said the goal is to come up with a framework and set of procedures, or “playbook,” that municipal-owned utilities across the country can follow to get permits to build nuclear power plants.
The grant does not require Lakeland Electric to commit to building a nuclear power plant.
“We are not building a nuclear power plant as of right now,” Dammer said. “Getting an early site permit does not require you to build a [power] plant. It gives us the option to do so in the future.”
In 2020, Joel Ivy, Lakeland Electric’s prior general manager, said he thought Lakeland Electric would make a major investment into nuclear energy if technology continued to advance over the next 10 to 15 years, with small modular nuclear reactors becoming more refined.
Commissioner Stephanie Madden has publicly spoken enthusiastically about the advancements in small modular nuclear reactors, sometimes called SMRs, as a future possibility.
“We could go into this study and find out that our site is just not suited for nuclear, that’s a very real possibility as well,” Dammer said. “We want to know what are our options.”
If city officials accept the grant, Lakeland Electric will have through April 1 to complete all necessary studies and work.
Even if Lakeland Electric’s sites are found to not be well suited for nuclear, Dammer said the environmental studies performed can help the utility decide what might be the best use moving forward.
Lakeland Electric is looking at the various options it has to provide its customers with power into the future.
Mike Beckham, LE’s general manager, previously said Unit 5, a natural-gas-powered, combined-cycle plant capable of producing up to 398 megawatts of power would start reaching the end of its lifecycle in 2030. It’s currently the utility’s baseload unit, or “workhorse.”