Ken Silverstein EnergyBiz Insider Editor-in-Chief

Public outreach should be done early and often. While everyone likes the lights to turn on at the flip of a switch, almost no one wants the generator to enable that reality to be located where they live. And utilities do accommodate many such concerns by placing power plants away from cities and away from areas that have known air quality issues. But, they must go somewhere.

"Put as much emphasis on the siting process as you would on the design," says Jack Halpern, a consultant with Louis Berger in South Florida, at a conference in Columbus, Ohio sponsored by the Edison Electric Institute. "No site is perfect and you need to find those flaws before others find them."

The easy solution is to wait until power outages become the norm and consumers start bellowing for reliable forms of electricity. That's been happening and is essentially what occurred during the California energy crisis of 2000-2001 when rolling blackouts were the norm. Now the state is scrambling to build more wires, pipelines and generators and the permitting process has been cut from years to a matter of months.

The proactive answer, conversely, is to estimate what future demand will be and to extend an open line of communication to let others know of the need. The issues tied to siting and capacity must be addressed before potential shortages occur by establishing neighborhood meetings and creating a common communication strategy.

Consider American Electric Power and its pursuit to build at least one coal gasification plant, which are said to significantly cut all emissions regulated under the Clean Air Act and which have the potential to sequester carbon dioxide emissions associated with global warming: Officials in three states -- Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia -- are vying to have such a plant located there and the jobs that come with it.

While the company emphasizes lower emissions and higher efficiencies, it knows that it will ultimately have to put boots on the ground and begin meeting neighborhood groups and environmental organizations if the plants are to be widely accepted. Indeed, sound project management is essential to bring any utility project to completion.

As companies assess their scopes and strategies they are simultaneously evaluating the probability of their risks. If market demand necessitates the building of new infrastructure, utilities must then estimate their external exposure. If the risks are manageable, they will likely decide to plan accordingly to mitigate their effects.

Best Practices

To overcome potential obstacles, experts suggest implementing "best practices" that involve hiring seasoned workers who are steeped in community relations and who know how to get projects built. Once a project gets the necessary permits, the company should begin its outreach programs, all to allow for more leeway to remedy potential problems.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that the demand for electricity will grow by 50 percent over the next 20 years. Coal is expected to provide the preponderance of America's energy and increase from about 52 percent of the generation mix today to about 60 percent in that time period. The chief reason is that it is relatively cheap and abundant when compared to other fuel sources, albeit it is a lot dirtier than natural gas or nuclear -- the next two leading energy forms.

Coal plants have long lead time, around 10-12 years. But, once they are up and running, they can have a lifespan of several decades. That fact, along with the emissions they create, is why the permitting process tied to them is onerous. The site must be reasonable and defensible. But, utilities don't consider coal plants deal breakers as evidenced by the fact that more than 100 of them are on the drawing board right now.

The first places utilities look to put such plants is in those areas where there is rail or barge to transport the coal as well as where they can discharge the water used in the process of making electricity. They need to be able to interconnect to a transmission grid, too. They also want to avoid large population centers and locations where regional haze is a factor. Meantime, sensitive environmental areas are off limits. Some experts suggest using satellite imagery to plot sites best suited to construction.

Once a location is chosen, it's a matter of doing the legwork and explaining the purpose of the plant to a wide array of stakeholders. "If you anticipate the issues and plan for them, you can minimize project delays and construction costs," says Randy Schultze, with EDAW/AECOM, in comments to the Edison Electric Institute. "Tell your story up front and early before a lot of misinformation gets out."

Getting renewable projects permitted are not any less problematic than fossil fuel plants. Solar plants, for example, require about 10 square kilometers of land to build 50-100 megawatts. Oftentimes the sites selected are remote desert land that the Bureau of Land Management controls.

And, wind plants require an average annual wind speed of 14.7 miles per hour as well as the need to be able to interconnect with transmission systems. But some sites draw opposition because they are considered by critics to be scenic blights. In West Virginia's Greenbrier County, for example, many residents and some environmental groups alike recognize the need for added power generation but are taking conflicting positions over a proposed windmill site.

Recent times have hosted certain events causing the public and its elected representation to pay close attention to electricity reliability. Awareness is one thing. Getting generators permitted and built is another. To meet the expected increase in energy demand, there is no short cut for beating the pavement and running a transparent and inclusive process.

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