Consultants Back Proposed Southwest 2 Power Plant for Springfield

(January 27, 2006, as appeared in the Springfield News-Leader)

A locally built coal-fired power plant is the cheapest and least-risky way to meet Springfield's energy needs, according to an energy consultant hired by City Utilities.

At a special CU board meeting this afternoon, Kansas-based Black & Veatch strongly endorsed the proposed Southwest 2 power plant that city voters rejected in August 2004.

Black & Veatch compared Southwest 2 against eight energy supply proposals from outside companies.

The best of those, according to Black & Veatch project economist John Wynne, came from Nebraska-based Tenaska/GRDA. It offered CU a 42 percent ownership share of a coal-fired power plant yet to be built in northeast Oklahoma.

After making an apples-to-apples comparison, Wynne said CU customers would pay 5.1 cents per kilowatt hour under the Tenaska/GRDA plan.

Energy from Southwest 2 would cost 4.9 cents per kilowatt hour.

Wynne said the Tenaska/GRDA proposal could beat Southwest 2's energy cost only if coal prices to Springfield were 34 percent higher than coal prices to Oklahoma, an unlikely scenario.

Wynne said the Tenaska/GRDA plant also carries substantial risk because it doesn't yet have an air permit from Oklahoma, and that could delay its 2012 construction date and also possibly increase the cost of the plant.

Southwest 2 already has an air permit from Missouri, although environmentalists are challenging it in court.

Wynne also said Tenaska/GRDA hasn't yet acquired property rights for the plant, another potential risk the CU board needed to consider.

CU staff members plan to recommend a power supply option - most likely Southwest 2 - at a special board meeting Feb. 8.

The board also will consider a variety of financing options and what they would cost an average CU customer.

The board will vote on that recommendation at its Feb. 23 meeting. If the board chooses the Southwest 2 option, it likely will go before Springfield voters in June.

Copyright 2006, Springfield News-Leader