{"id":638,"date":"2019-07-03T20:00:45","date_gmt":"2019-07-03T20:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=638"},"modified":"2019-07-03T20:00:58","modified_gmt":"2019-07-03T20:00:58","slug":"lakeland-electric-gets-major-pushback-on-shuttering-le-unit-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2019\/07\/03\/lakeland-electric-gets-major-pushback-on-shuttering-le-unit-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakeland Electric gets major pushback on shuttering LE Unit 3"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As Lakeland Electric officials presented the estimated costs\nof replacing its coal-fired plant, the utility was pressed to keep McIntosh\nUnit 3 running a little longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ron Kremann, LE’s special projects manager, said it would\ncost the city roughly $3.43 billion to replace its 37-year-old Unit 3, which it\nplans to shut down by fall 2024, with another coal-powered plant. He suggested\nthe municipal-owned utility may wish to switch up its fuel source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Currently, the ideal is probably natural gas,” he\nsaid. “Will things change? They certainly could.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kremann cited 2018 numbers from the U.S. Energy Information\nAdministration indicating three different types of generators would cost a\nfraction of a new coal plant, each costing $600 million or less to construct. He\nalso presented figures which indicate that natural gas-powered units are\ncheaper to operate and maintain. Lakeland Electric officials stated in May its\nnatural gas-fired Unit 5 is $20 an hour cheaper to operate than Unit 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The national trend is there’s only one coal plant\nunder construction,” he said, noting it’s by the University of Alaska in\nFairbanks. “They said the only reason they went with coal is the site has\nno gas pipeline, no oil pipeline, limited wind and is dark most of the year.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

National energy production from coal-fired units is expected\nto drop 35% by 2025, according to Kremann, in large part fueled by the\nincreasing environmental regulations. Nearly $900 million of the $3.4 billion\nfor a new coal plant would simply be for federally-mandated technology to\ncapture and store carbon dioxide emissions. The second part is carbon taxes\nbeing leveraged on coal use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faced with national trends and increasing costs, members of\nthe city’s utility commission were not convinced that decommissioning Unit 3 is\nthe right direction for Lakeland’s future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I’m not a fan of shutting down our coal plant,\nespecially not by 2024. I think it’s an arbitrary timeline,” Commissioner\nJustin Troller said. “I think we are setting ourselves up for failure and\nleaving ourselves no choice in 2024.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Troller expressed concerns that heavy reliance on a single\nfuel source, such as natural gas, could increase costs to Lakeland Electric’s\ncustomers. He said residents could be more strongly impacted by market\nfluctuations or further regulations of fracking, a process of releasing natural\ngas. He asked if the utility had performed any formal study of Unit 3’s\nlifecycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mike Beckham, LE’s assistant general manager of production,\nsaid no formal calculations had been run, but had been discussed at length.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s getting exorbitantly expensive to keep replacing\nthings,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lakeland Electric was forced to take Unit 3 offline for an\nextended period from late January into May for $1.4 million in emergency\nrepairs. Once running again, the utility company discovered a misalignment\nin Unit 3’s water feed pump, according to Beckham, limiting energy production\nto 200 megawatts a day in June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The vibrations caused by the misalignment remain an ongoing\nissue plaguing Lakeland Electric. Beckham said while the coal plant is running\nagain, it remains limited to two-thirds of its 360-megawatt capacity. The\ncompany is now bringing in a consultant to evaluate and help determine the\nsource of the issues, according to Beckham. He expressed hope Unit 3 will be\noperational within a few days to The Ledger, but made no guarantee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Everyone is walking away from coal plants with nothing\nto replace them. That’s the bottom line,” Daryl Johnson, a utility\ncommittee member, said. “The question remains, in the long term, what do\nwe do from that standpoint. You’ve painted a pretty bleak picture for building\na coal plant.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kremann said he strongly believes the utility’s future lies\nin a mix of renewable sources with something else to generate the 144 megawatts\nneeded to meet energy demands. Lakeland Electric officials, including General\nManager Joel Ivy, have indicated since April that solar energy is an\noption to keep a diversity of energy sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s still very expensive right now,” Kremann\nsaid, indicating there may be grants available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also indicated he’s had conversations with a\nFlorida-based supplier of liquid nitrogen to see if the compacted fuel could be\nanother option for the city. Commissioner Stephanie Madden’s idea of looking at\nnew trends in nuclear technology gained some support, though more research is\nneeded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnson suggested the utility should consider another joint\nventure with Orlando Utilities Commission, which owns 40% of Unit 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They are definitely a good candidate for that,”\nKremann said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lakeland Electric has already engaged in unofficial\nconversations with OUC about future power supply and generation. The\nOrlando-based utility reported breaking its all-time peak power demand record\nin June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It would be difficult for us to build a big plant\nwithout a partner,” Kremann said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Members of the city’s utility committee seemed to agree they\nwant Lakeland to continue to be an energy producer, rather than relying on\nenergy purchased from other utility companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We have a history of generating our own power, we need\nto find funds and creative ways to see if we can continue to do that,”\nJohnson said. “It puts us in a stronger position 30, 40, 50 years down the\nroad.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Lakeland Electric officials presented the estimated costs of replacing its coal-fired plant, the utility was pressed to keep McIntosh Unit 3 running a little longer. Ron Kremann, LE’s special… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":639,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}