The
basics,
Xcel's
coal boilers are from the 1940's and 1950's and were designed to be "dual fuel"
back then which means the could (and still can/do) burn natural gas. Once
they were exempted from the Clean Air Act in the 1970's they abandoned the gas
as a fuel at Riverside and Highbridge in favor of the cheaper coal which they
lobbied heavily so they could continue to burn without control. They both
burn natural gas today--so it is not so much a "new" load on the supply, but
they will definitely burn more. The Xcel owned blackdog plant is finishing
conversion of two boilers to natural gas (it should be finished already) in
Burnsville. I haven't heard any complaints that the sky is falling down
there, but I will wait and see.
Large
utilities by having large assets can do a variety of things to insure
adequate gas supply. If you think that they will sit back and bear the
price spikes we bear because of market fluctuations you are not thinking like a
large company that has a basic monopoly on our energy (Xcel supplies
natural gas also, Reliant has the corner on the metro market though). They
have the ability to purchase large amounts of gas and store it and they can also
"hedge" future prices to insure a reasonable price for themseleves, along with
all kinds of other means that their internal folks have gone through to make
sure they can do this and still make money hand over fist.
Xcel
has to purchase electricity from other generators when demand exceeds their
supply (during peak use times). It cost's them pennies to generate each
kwh which they charge you about 6.5 cents these days, but during these times of
need when they purchase power, they will pay up to $125 per kwh--have you
noticed a price change when this happened?--no. That's part of the cost of doing
business for the company.
If you see some of the details of the conversion plans
they are going to be adding capacity to power 400,000 homes, which will help
them meet the needs into the future and will help them avoid paying "market"
prices to purchase extra energy when it is in short supply. They will have to update these plants eventually, and
that is not due to their altruism, but do to good business sense. Natural
gas is more efficient and is the choice for new power plants in any other area
of the world (where they don't have an infrastructure to deliver coal) and also
in the U.S..
Conversion would
involve installing new Combined Cycle Gas Turbines. It is equivalent to
installing a new high-efficency furnace in your home (imagine if you were
using a 1950's furnace to heat your home last winter).
The efficiencies would be boosted from the current 31-33% with coal to 48%
with gas--these are huge gains! Basically they burn less fuel to obtain
more power, which will help offset the additional costs they may
incur.
I
wouldn't loose sleep over all this. It was written in the article on
Friday that if Xcel has to make a "rate case" to the PUC they will abandon all
of these plans and resort to coal tinkering at the three plants. Riverside
isn't planned on converting until 2009, so you have many more years to inhale
the hazardous compounds from the plant which is shortening your life so that
will mean you have less years to pay any increased rates that may be passed on
to you. These plants are the single largest source of pollutants reported
to the MPCA and the EPA, coal burning is responsible for the fish advisories we
have in the state and a laundry list of maladies we don't even fully understand
yet. These plants are city eyesores on the Mississippi with huge coal
piles extending for blocks and blocks adjacent to the river. Each day
train upon train burns diesel fuel to deliver coal from Western states where
the coal is strip mined leaving behind a barren landscape and groundwater
contamination. Each day truck upon truck hauls away the fly ash through
Northeast neighborhoods burning diesel fuel so it can take it to a landfill up
in St. Cloud. That landfill slowly fills with ash from the plants and
slowly will leach the contaminants into the drinking water
supplys.
We
talk a lot about sustainable activities in the environmental community, is
coal burning something we can continue doing indefinitely?--no. Is this
something that is beneficial to the community as a whole?--no. Coal burning
fails the test so we look to natural gas as an interim step until renewables can
be sufficiently worked into the mix. The power companies are slow to
change and will fight it until they absolutely have to make the change.
Xcel has minds sharper than ours which have lulled the public into complacentcy
for decades, they plan that you will remained uninformed and worry about things
that they are paid to do. I could go on but the information is out
there. If a company was doing something unjust the bottom line is we would
want them to change no matter what the cost (if they burned people's pets for
fuel for example). The answers to most of your questions are on the
web.
We
also have a people's forum planned this Saturday to talk about these issues on
May 11 at Logan park 9:30 am.
Justin Eibenholzl
Environmental
Coordinator
Southeast
Minneapolis Neighborhoods
Southeast Como Improvement Association
2010 E. Hennepin Ave, Mpls MN
(612)676-1731
email:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of LISCHEID ,RONALD
Sent: Thursday, May 02, 2002 7:38 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [Mpls] Some things an inquiring mind would like to knowToday, posted to the list, was an article several list members have already discussed, about the plans by XCel to convert current coal-fired plants to natural gas.I don't pretend to be an environmentalist or an economist, but I would like to ask some questions from the perspective of a consumer.I am assuming that this natural gas is similar to the natural gas that Reliant supplies to my home to supply heat, hot water and cooking, correct?I took enough college level economics to understand the basics of supply and demand.Suddenly we have a large commercial customer switch power sources from one that is not in competition with consumer needs to one that competes with consumer needs heads-on. One question that comes to mind is what "is being done to the supply side of the equation to make sure that I can continue to operate my furnace in the winter" (something that I have selfishly become accustomed to) ?I remember the winter of 2000-2001 and my gas bill. That winter it cost over $1000 to heat my humble little home. We were told that the increase in price was due to an increase in demand without a corresponding increase in supply. At the same time, the then-members of the city council also approved an increase in the 'city franchise fee' [aka: city natural gas tax] (about double, if I remember correctly) which is not a fixed tax per unit of energy purchased but a percentage of the consumers gas bill. So during that winter, the consumer price roughly doubled, the 'city franchise fee' nearly doubles and the net result is a four-fold increase on that line item of the city's income side of their ledger. Will XCel get an exemption from this 'city franchise fee' or will there be a slight 'silver lining' from this conversion via the increased fees that the city will be the beneficiary?Coal, electricity and natural gas are commodities traded on the open market like wheat and coal. With electricity and natural gas, there is also a 'distribution system' part of the equation. This summer, if I want to run my air conditioner because it is really hot and XCel is experiencing brownouts because everyone else in town shares my 'original idea', I probably could go out on the open market and purchase some surplus electricity like XCel does. The problem that I would experience is how to get my 'truckload of electrons' delivered to my house so that I could selfishly run my air conditioner 24 hours per day while my neighbors suffer. (remember, I live in the MSP flight paths and can't have my windows open in the summer!) In the past, XCel was able to go out on the open market and purchase their own coal right from the mine. They could load it into railroad cars that they rented or bring it up the river on barges that they rented. XCel had options in the past to purchase energy on the open market and provide the means of distribution. Will XCel also be their own agent for the purchase and delivery of their new source of energy?If XCel is using the same supply source and same distribution system that you and I use from Reliant and the demand goes up and the supply stays the same or declines, who gets the 'juice'? If we have to ration, will we all suffer equally? Does anyone know what you call a natural gas 'brown-out'? I doubt that many would suggest to 'just shut down the electric company' to increase the supply of natural gas for consumers.These are just some silly questions that my 'inquiring mind' wants to know the answers to. I hope that minds sharper than mine are also asking these questions and coming up with good answers in the next couple of years while the conversion is being made.Ron LischeidWindom(on the edge of the Minneapolis wilderness but in the same neighborhood as Reliant)
