Muscatine utility looks to future expansion

MUSCATINE, Iowa — Over 100 years ago, Muscatine voters decided a city-owned light and power generation was best for the future of the town. In March 1923, construction began on its first new power plants. Fast forward 100 years and Muscatine Power and Water (MPW) is planning an expansion that will carry its operation and power generation into the 21st century. The plan is known as the utility’s “Powering the Future” strategy.  A 2022 Power Supply Study conducted — on the city’s utility’s behalf — by Leidos Engineering, with an office in Peoria, Illinois, evaluated 18 future power generation scenarios all designed to meet MPW’s obligation to supply a minimum of 156 megawatts (MW) capacity. Each scenario considered market conditions and cost/risk analyses to determine how the company can best meet the reliability, affordability, flexibility, and sustainability needs of its customers. In late March, the MPW Board of Trustees met with MPW executives, who brought forward three of the options before recommending one scenario. The proposed plan would enable the utility to continue meeting its obligation while also pursuing its long-term goals to reduce carbon emissions 65% by 2030 by expanding its renewable energy sources and transitioning from coal to natural gas generation. The recommended action would be a $156 million investment in upgrading the utility’s generation.  The MPW Board has not given a final vote on the recommendation or yet approved a spending plan. But it did direct MPW staff, including General Manager Gage Huston, to move forward on evaluating the strategy’s options.  Under the proposed scenario, changes would include:  

• Pursuing upgrades to its existing coal-burning generating plant, Unit 9, to bring it into effluent limit guidelines compliance. The unit is expected to produce 155MW.  
• Pursuing development of a small-scale combined heat and power (CHP) unit to produce a minimum of 50 MW.  This CHP plant would initially be powered by natural gas and produce both electricity and steam power. As technology evolves, it can be converted to be powered by hydrogen or other new technologies. The Inflation Reduction Act offers significant incentives for CHP construction, but MPW would need to begin construction before Jan. 1, 2025.
• Continuing development of MPW’s Solar 1 project to produce up to 100MW produced from solar. Solar 1 will be built on the company’s 143-acre Grandview Avenue well field site.

Utility officials have said MPW’s “Powering the Future” strategy takes a balanced approach concentrating on four key factors: Reliability, Affordability, Flexibility and Sustainability. However, during both a customer forum and the Board of Trustees meeting held in March, multiple perspectives were offered about how the utility should proceed with its future power-generating plans. “Reliability is the top priority for most of our customers,” Mr. Huston told the QCBJ. Mr. Huston believes locally-owned power generation gives MPW a unique advantage for its customers, the majority of which are commercial and industrial electric power users. Industrial customers such as HNI Corp., Grain Processing Corporation, and Bayer U.S. Crop Science use 68% of the load produced locally by MPW. “We very much value the reliable and cost-effective service that we get,” Brian Popelka, who was representing Bayer, told the MPW board at the March meeting. “Here recently with a lot of the price and reliability swings that have been seen across the country and across the world and even with some of the rate changes that have been proposed here, we are routinely, by unit, some of the cheapest power in all of Bayer.” “We know burning coal isn’t good for us, we also realize there may be a trade off,” Jean Clark of Clean Air Muscatine told the trustees. “We feel if we burn coal longer for a few years and can go bigger with renewables, that’s a good trade off. We’re a little concerned about getting locked into a CHP plant that is going to be burning natural gas that will add more to our climate concerns. If you hold off, keep Unit 9 going a little longer, get your solar wrapped up, and watch the technology — so you can get batteries for storage, I would encourage you to think about it.” Jessica Brackett, the president of Progress Muscatine, a nonprofit advocacy group, added “We do hope for 100% renewable, yet we are pragmatic. We believe sticking with what we’ve got is the best option. Your units will last as long as you take care of them which will get you to the next level of technology.” “We are supportive of embracing the sustainability piece and the expansion of new technologies,” added Bayer’s Mr. Popelka. “But our request is to make sure to not let the assets get too old and then all of a sudden we have a reliability problem.” To learn more visit here.