by Wallace McMullen
Missouri Electric Utility Buys Into Wind Power
Empire District Electric Company in Joplin has signed a 20–year contract to purchase wind energy generated at the new 150–megawatt Elk River wind farm project in Butler County, Kansas being developed by PPM Energy. Empire expects to buy about 550,000 megawatt hours of wind-generated electricity per year from the wind power project, enough to meet the annual needs of approximately 42,000 homes. The project is expected to provide about ten percent of Empire's electricity load. This is quite significant.
As far as the author knows, this is the first time a Missouri utility has committed to receiving a major portion of its electricity supply from wind power. Aquila is purchasing wind power from another Kansas wind farm, but that is believed to be a much smaller part of their generating mix.
Also significant is the fact that the utility has invested in the project before it is operational. The company anticipates it will begin receiving wind power from this project in December, 2005. Empire District provides electric service to about 157,000 customers in southwest Missouri, and neighboring regions of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.
Permit Issued for Springfield City Utilities to Build Coal Burning Power Plant
The Air Pollution Control Program in Missouri DNR issued a Prevention of Significant Deterioration permit for Springfield’s City Utilities proposal to build a new coal-burning power plant on December 15, 2004. This permit, once final, will allow the municipal utility to begin construction on the new power plant during the next twelve months. However, in the summer of 2004 the citizens of Springfield voted down the rate increase and bonds that would be needed to build the 275-megawatt coal burning project. So at present, the utility does not have the money to build the new plant.
Also, some environmental groups believe that the emission limits contained in the DNR permit are not as strict as they should be, and are considering an appeal to the Missouri Air Conservation Commission on those grounds.
City Utilities could implement efficiency programs to reduce the demand for electricity, or pursue clean renewable energy with fewer obstacles than building a new coal-burning power plant, but so far they have refused to seriously consider those options.