Investing in a Secure Future

WPPI is well positioned in terms of power generation; resources will be adequate to meet member needs through at least 2016.

In 2007, WPPI’s three-year planned increase in funding for energy efficiency and conservation programs in member communities took effect. WPPI members unanimously approved a $2.2 million increase in funding in 2007. Over three years, program funding will increase by more than 300 percent — from $2.38 million in 2006 to $9 million in 2009.

The primary objectives for this funding are: to lessen the negative impacts of burning fossil fuels by reducing energy consumption; to control costs by reducing WPPI’s future generation needs; and to keep electric bills down by reducing energy use without adversely affecting convenience or productivity.

Power Supply Highlights

• The WPPI Board of Directors decided not to exercise its ownership option to participate in the Prairie State Energy Campus, a major electricity generating station and coal mine planned for Lively Grove, Ill. This decision was based on an examination of WPPI’s resource needs and the alternatives available to meet such needs. WPPI continues to regard the Prairie State Energy Campus as a viable project.

WPPI’s low-emission, gas-fired peaking unit in Kaukauna

• WPPI has an 8.33 percent ownership interest — representing approximately 100 MW — in the Elm Road Generating Station, a 1,200 MW supercritical coal generation project being developed by an affiliate of We Energies in Oak Creek, Wis.
• Late in 2007, in response to a federal court decision, a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) administrative law judge ruled that the Elm Road project would need to be licensed as a “new facility” for purposes of granting an operating license to the project. The DNR had previously determined that the project was an “existing facility” because it is located on an existing plant site and shares common facilities with existing generation. As a result of the administrative law judge’s ruling, the DNR will need to reevaluate the issuance of the operating license under the “new facility” criteria. WPPI and its partners in this project are confident that the permit will be reissued under the “new facility” criteria. The owners of the plant are vigorously pursuing the new permit.

• Meanwhile, construction of the plant is about 50 percent complete and remains on budget.
• Maquoketa, Iowa became the 49th WPPI member community with the approval of a long-term power supply agreement between the Maquoketa Municipal Electric Utility and WPPI. WPPI will supply power to the municipal utility’s more than 3,500 residential and commercial customers beginning in January 2009. The added load and increased geographic diversity will benefit all WPPI member utilities over the long term.

Renewable Resources Diversify WPPI’s Portfolio

By 2009, WPPI expects to have sufficient resources in place for meeting Wisconsin’s requirement that at least 10 percent of electricity purchased by retail customers in the state be supplied from renewable sources starting in 2015. Progress towards this goal continued in 2007.

• Top of Iowa II, a wind facility near Kensett, Iowa, held its groundbreaking in April. WPPI began receiving power from this facility in October 2007. A 20-year purchased power agreement adds 50 MW of renewable energy to WPPI’s portfolio. This purchase is expected to supply, on average, about 144,000 MWh of renewable energy per year — enough to power the annual needs of approximately 16,000 homes.
• Other projects supporting an increased reliance on renewable energy include Butler Ridge, a wind project in Dodge County, Wis.; the Outagamie County landfill-to-gas project; and the purchase of wind power from the Forward Energy Center, just east of WPPI member community Waupun.
• These renewable resources will be added to a portfolio that also includes the output from two wind turbines near Worthington, Minn. owned by WPPI, as well as a refurbished, 7-MW low-impact hydroelectric facility near the WPPI member community of Black River Falls, Wis.
• WPPI continues to work with member electric utilities, local officials and qualified developers to install wind turbines in several member communities. By placing utility-sized wind turbine generators in a number of different communities, WPPI can create a large distributed renewable energy project. Development costs will be lower than if each member community had pursued smaller projects on their own, and WPPI will purchase the energy output from the projects.
• WPPI will move forward only with those projects that have strong community support and full backing from the member utility. While some communities have expressed interest, the lack of statewide standards in this area has led to widely divergent responses from communities to wind energy proposals. This suggests a need for state legislation that will facilitate consistent approaches to the siting of wind turbines in Wisconsin communities. WPPI is now actively supporting legislation on this topic, to help ensure the future of locally generated renewable energy.