THREE WAYS THIS MATTERS TO YOU
1. GREEN ENERGY. "You're getting clean, green renewable energy," said Tom Leibham, Hamilton manager of hydroelectric operations. "I think the citizens of Hamilton are proud to have such a large green hydro facility."
2. SUSTAINABILITY. Meldahl power plant builders say the facility will have a service life of 100 years or more.
“It’s something that in the long-run will benefit everyone because it’s green,” Hamilton Councilwoman Kathleen Klink said. “It’s more permanent than other kinds of energy resources that are out there right now.”
3. STABLE ELECTRIC RATES. The Meldahl electric plant is powered by water. The cost of operating power plants fueled by natural gas, oil and/or coal fluctuates with changing prices of gas, oil and coal.
“From a long-term perspective, there’s nothing more stable hydro,” said Doug Childs, Hamilton public utilities director.
“You try to take kind of a portfolio approach. You don’t want to either penalize your current rate payers, but by the same token you’ve got to look out 20, 30 years.”
Rising to the height of a 10-story building, Hamilton’s Meldahl hydroelectric power plant is believed by operators to be one of the largest alternative energy projects right now in the Midwest.
The Meldahl plant could generate enough electricity to nearly power the entire city of Hamilton, said Doug Childs, Hamilton’s public utilities director. Projections are Meldahl will generate approximately 558,000 megawatt hours per year, enough energy to supply 55,000 homes, Childs said. Even so, Hamilton’s city-owned electric utility will keep a diversified energy portfolio.
The 10-year, $500 million project is nearing the end of construction on the Ohio River. Slated to start operations in early 2015, the Meldahl power plant will provide an additional so-called green source of energy to Hamilton electric customers.
Before most of the massive concrete structure is submerged underwater, elected city officials, city workers, business executives and public utility commission members piled into a bus Monday to see it. Their destination: 60-plus miles from Hamilton to the southern banks of the river outside Foster, Ky.
There, is the site of the existing Captain Anthony B. Meldahl Dam and Locks. Next to it, Hamilton city government and partner American Municipal Power Inc. are building the power station.
Three water turbines installed in the facility will generate electricity from the flow of the river.
“Not only was I impressed with the physical scope of the job that’s being done there, but its benefits,” said Steve Sackenheim, vice president of operations and facilities for Matandy Steel and Metal Products LLC, a Hamilton steel processor and city utility customer.
“It excites me as an end user,” said Sackenheim, who attended Monday’s tour. “When you go hydroelectric, I think zero fossil fuel. If nothing else, I would expect to see stability in the (electric) rates versus the volatile swings we have seen” due to changing prices of natural gas, coal and oil used to fuel other power plants.
All but the top five feet of the 100-foot tall power plant will be below water level, said Tom Leibham, Hamilton manager of hydroelectric operations. Visitors on the Hamilton tour saw the structure one of the last times it will be dry, Leibham said.
“The differential in the upper pool and the lower pool (of the dam) is about 30 feet,” he said. “We use that energy that goes through the gates to make power by spinning turbines. Rotors turn and it makes electricity.”
Hamilton government owns four utilities servicing residents: water, wastewater, natural gas and electric. Also Hamilton owns its electric generation assets, with ownership stakes in five power plants in Butler County, elsewhere in Ohio, Illinois and Meldahl under construction in Northern Kentucky.
Once the Meldahl power plant opens, 65 percent to 70 percent of Hamilton’s electric consumption will be generated using carbon-free, pollution-free emission sources, including the Meldahl plant and other power sources, Childs said.
Hamilton owns the majority stake in Meldahl, 51 percent, and the rest is owned by American Municipal, a nonprofit that owns and operates multiple power plants to generate electric for its 129 municipal members in seven states. Hamilton is also a member of American Municipal.
The Meldahl power plant is the largest of four water-powered stations being built simultaneously on the banks of the Ohio River, according to Columbus, Ohio-based American Municipal.
“To see that kind of major, major construction to benefit this entire community is exhilarating,” said Hamilton councilwoman Kathleen Klink after visiting the construction site Monday.
“It shows the progress our community is making. It emphasizes our desire to be a green community and I think those things are incredibly important going forward,” Klink said.
Between now and the Meldahl plant’s opening, work still needs done on dredging and other outside ground work. A temporary dam put in place for construction will be breached this spring. And every component has to be commissioned or inspected.
Job offers have been extended to eight operators for continuing plant operations.
“This is another asset of the city of Hamilton along with AMP for basically getting the best rates for our customers,” Hamilton councilman Robert Brown said. Brown credited the foresight of past council members and former city administration for making it happen.
Paul Kimble, a member of Hamilton’s public utilities commission, and part of the group that conceived the Meldahl project, said, “Hamilton already has some of the lowest rates in the area and they’ll be able to maintain it” with the new power plant.
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