Power crisis could happen here

(Published Thursday, August 30, 2001 11:41:19 AM CDT)

By Mike DuPre'/Gazette Staff

Wisconsin must build new power plants and transmission lines to avoid an energy crisis such as the one afflicting California, an Alliant Energy vice president said Wednesday.

Kim Zuhlke, Alliant vice president of engineering, sales and marketing, told a group of Rock County business people and government representatives that Wisconsin's energy situation closely resembles California's because:

--Both states import electricity. Wisconsin imports 25 percent to 30 percent of its power.

--Geography limits transmission. The Pacific Ocean limits the places from which California can import energy; Lakes Michigan and Superior do likewise for Wisconsin.

--Both states have gone a similar stretch--about 15 years--without constructing new major power plants while experiencing sustained growth.

"I really believe we need to build and build and build more conventional plants and renewable (energy) plants," Zuhlke said.

The best renewable-energy source for Alliant is wind, and the utility has constructed a windmill farm in Iowa, he added.

Rolling blackouts have darkened homes and curtailed business this summer in California. Technicians were standing by transformers in Wisconsin in 1998, awaiting orders to cut power temporarily, Zuhlke said. Since then, Alliant had to reinforce many of its substations with diesel-fueled generators.

Zuhlke made his remarks at the Rock County Air Quality and Energy Summit at Blackhawk Technical College.

Alliant has pledged to invest $2 billion in the next five years to increase its generating capacity and upgrade transmission capability, Zuhlke said. Part of that plan is a new 600-megawatt, natural gas-burning plant between Janesville and Beloit on utility-owned land near the existing Rock River Generating Plant.

Zuhlke displayed a chart showing that as the environmental harm from various kinds of power plants decreases, the cost of electricity increases. The cheapest juice comes from old, retrofitted coal-burning plants; the most expensive from wind farms.

Alliant's sources for power are 75 percent coal, 20 percent nuclear and 5 percent gas, water and wind, Zuhlke said.

He said he was encouraged by the fact that wind-generated electricity has become sufficient to be a significant factor in Alliant's planning.

The utility is offering residential customers a chance to buy renewable energy at a higher price than traditionally generated electricity and soon will offer the opportunity to businesses, Zuhlke said.

Renewable energy costs about 27 percent more than traditional electricity.

But many residential customers and some businesses and industries probably will choose to pay more, knowing they are doing the most they can to conserve power and protect the environment, Zuhlke said. Businesses could use that fact to attract environmentally concerned customers, he said.

Conservation also must continue if Wisconsin is to avoid California's energy calamity, Zuhlke said.

During the past five years, Alliant customers have saved enough electricity to power 90,000 homes for a year, the capacity of one small generating plant, he said.

http://www.gazetteextra.com/energysummit083001.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), August 31, 2001