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By Steven Wallach
TIMES ARGUS STAFF
EAST MONTPELIER - Washington Electric Cooperative president
Barry Bernstein told members at the rural electric supplier's
annual meeting Tuesday that a methane landfill power project being
planned in Coventry would prove to be a "life-saver" for
the co-op.
"Fossil fuel is going through the roof," Bernstein
said. "Natural gas is at 8 cents per kilowatt-hour and it's
not going to come down in the near future. People in the Northeast
are particularly vulnerable because natural gas has been the fuel
of choice for power generation in this region." The methane
installation will produce power for about a nickel per
kilowatt-hour and the co-op will not have to look for outside
sources of supply, he noted.
The Vermont Public Service Board is reviewing WEC's plan to
develop and own the generation project at Casella Waste
Management's landfill in Coventry, and Bernstein said the co-op
board hopes to complete the project and begin operations early in
2005. If the PSB approves, the cooperative will warn a special
meeting for a membership vote by mail on the project as early as
June.
At Tuesday's meeting, Bernstein emphasized the growing
importance of renewable power, and reminded members of the power
supply uncertainties facing Vermont electric ratepayers.
"The state is going to lose 70 percent of its power by
2015," he said, referring to the termination of contracts
between major Vermont utilities and Entergy Nuclear and Hydro
Quebec. The limited range of options to replace those sources will
likely increase wholesale and retail prices, he said.
Avram Patt, WEC general manager, said the landfill project is
running pretty close to schedule, especially since the co-op
originally set "an optimistic timetable."
The PSB has set a June 1 hearing on the project's technical
aspects, and Patt said he knows of no opposition.
Washington Electric Cooperative is based in East Montpelier and
serves 9,400 homes, farms and businesses in rural areas of 41
central Vermont towns. About 180 members attended the meeting to
elect officers and hear a report on the co-ops plans.
Attorney Kimberley Cheney of Middlesex and Cabot dairy farmer
Roy Folsom were elected to serve on the Board of Directors of the
consumer-owned electric utility. Bernstein of East Calais, the
incumbent president, was re-elected to the nine-member board.
The landfill project involves construction of a building in
Casella Waste Management's landfill in Coventry, just south of
Newport, installation of concrete pads for the internal combustion
generators, and construction of a 7.5-mile transmission line to
connect to VELCO's local substation, Patt said.
The project will be the largest commercial base-load generation
facility in Vermont to be run by methane, although the state has
some smaller-scale methane stations.
"This isn't new technology," Patt said Thursday.
"There are about 300 generators of this type
nationwide."
The base cost of the power is projected to be 5 cents per
kilowatt hour, and the landfill will provide sufficient methane
for power generation for 30 years, co-op official said.
WEC is looking at products from several companies, but hasn't
yet chosen a contractor for the gear or to do to the construction
work.
The Coventry facility will provide about a third of the co-op's
15 megawatts of peak need, Patt said. The generators will be able
to put out just short of 5 megawatts at full capacity, he said.
The potential for increasing power output will grow as the
landfill expands, he added. Casella is likely to grow in size as
landfill space in Vermont becomes increasingly scarce and demand
for waste disposal increases, he said. Landfills are required by
law to collect the gas from landfills, and burning it to produce
electricity is the most efficient way to do that.
Otherwise, the methane must be "flared," (burned off)
to prevent pollution, Patt said, so the potential for
methane-fueled power production is strong as long as Vermont
buries its waste.
Patt said the Coventry landfill is the largest in Vermont and
the only one of sufficient size to be commercially viable as a
power producer.
The price tag for the project is $7.2 million, including
engineering and legal services. WEC has secured a loan for the
work from the Rural Utilities Service, formerly called the Rural
Electrification Administration.
In other business at the meeting, members discussed the
possibilities for wind energy. Patt said he is concerned about
Gov. James Douglas' position on the technology. The governor has
said he supports a moratorium on wind-farm development in Vermont,
on private and public lands.
Patt said that position would threaten the co-op's $1 million
federal grant for researching wind-power development. He said
Douglas' position contradicts his expressed view that the state
must remove barriers to economic development, not impose them.
He said, "Wind development may not happen in Vermont, for
Washington Electric or anyone else. We've taken the position that
it needs to happen at a few carefully selected sites. It's
Vermont's only significant new, long-term resource for energy,
which the state is desperately going to need."
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