Bureaucratic Glitch Holds Up Wind Deal

By Matthew Leblanc, Columbia Daily Tribune, Mo.

Jun. 18–Plans to bring electricity to Columbia next month from a wind farm in northwest Missouri might be delayed until early 2008.

The city signed a first-of-its-kind deal last year to buy as much as 7 megawatts of electricity from Wind Capital Group’s Bluegrass Ridge wind farm in King City beginning July 1.

But Columbia could remain cut off from the power for another seven months because of a regulatory agency’s refusal to allow a small portion of the electricity to flow across transmission lines.

“I’ve been beating my head against a wall for weeks trying to get this to go,” said Dan Dasho, director of the city’s Water and Light Department.

At issue is whether the transmission lines have enough capacity to carry the extra purchased energy, which represents 2 percent of the electricity the city needs. The city’s power plant supplies 7 percent.

The city of Columbia has a contract with Springfield-based Associated Electric Cooperative Inc. to transmit the power. To get it flowing, however, the city must work with the Midwest Independent System Operator, or MISO, to make sure there is enough space on existing transmission lines to get the electricity from point A to point B.

MISO, which maintains and monitors the electric grid throughout the Midwest and parts of Canada, argues the move would put a part of the electric system over capacity by 0.3 megawatts. The Indiana-based agency has refused requests by the city to approve the plans to begin transmission of the power.

Dasho said 0.3 megawatts is about the amount of electricity needed to power a supermarket for one day. “I can’t believe 0.3 megawatts is going to bring the system down,” Dasho said. “It’s a ridiculous number.”

MISO officials said energy requests are filled on a first-come, first-served basis until capacity is reached, regardless of the size of the request.

Carl Dombek, a MISO spokesman, said in an e-mail today only that the agency was working on Columbia’s request.

If MISO does not give in to Columbia’s request, the city could have to wait until February — when extra capacity should be available for the electricity — to start receiving power from the wind farm. “It’s absurd,” City Manager Bill Watkins said of the situation. “I’m really frustrated.”

Nancy Southworth, a spokeswoman for Associated Electric, said today her company will work with Columbia to find other ways to get electricity from the wind farm to Mid-Missouri.

Dasho said other options might include buying space on transmission lines from other utilities. “I will do whatever it takes to get that wind energy into Columbia,” he said.

Columbia officials agreed to buy the wind power in part to fulfill a voter-approved law that requires a portion of the city’s energy portfolio come from renewable, or “green,” sources beginning in 2008. The city would meet the requirements of the law, even if the wind power is delayed until February, because the city plans to use renewable energy from more than one source.

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