TRAVERSE CITY -- Municipal utility leaders must decide where to buy electricity starting in 2011, whether from coal-fired power plants or renewable energy sources.
Traverse City Light & Power will lose access in January 2011 to a long-term, coal-based energy contract with a downstate company, a contract that for more than 25 years provided 50 percent of the publicly owned utility's demand.
Now utility board members must decide whether to pursue renewable energy sources or continue to buy coal-fired power elsewhere.
The board will meet Tuesday for a study session to discuss options to replace the expiring energy purchase contract. Public comment will be taken.
"We can find places to buy energy," said James Hoogesteger, Light & Power board member. "The renewable source is not big enough to meet demand. We probably will consider a mix of coal and green energy."
Hoogesteger said the utility wants to get away from coal, but there are few options to provide base-load energy for growing customer demand.
Some energy options include wind, solar, landfill gas, natural gas and wood-fueled biomass electric generation.
Tom Karas, executive director for the Michigan Energy Alternatives Project, said Light & Power may have to buy coal-fueled power in the short-term, but biomass energy could provide the base-load source the utility needs.
"That's something renewables, right now, do not provide. That's not to say in five years it won't," Karas said.
Light & Power is "on the right track" with biomass energy, he said, but he is curious about sustainable fuel supplies.
Traverse City resident Jeff Gibbs, who's been outspoken against biomass plants, said he's frustrated by a "coal or no coal" discussion.
"It's odd to me that immediately after questions are raised about biomass, the first thing that comes up again is coal," Gibbs said. "I'd like to be off fossil fuels tomorrow, but that's impossible. So we need to discuss and study the options."
Linda Johnson, Light & Power board chairwoman, said all energy options come with strengths and weaknesses, but the utility must decide how to meet rate-payers' energy needs now and in the future.
"I really believe it will be diversified," she said, adding that a combination among coal and renewable energies is likely.
Ed Rice, the utility's executive director, said he is working on a three-year contract for coal energy to begin in 2011, "until we get renewables as a base-load provider."
"Somewhere we have to replace that 50 percent base-load," Rice said. "The thought is to have coal, wind, wood-fueled biomass, solar and natural gas."
Light & Power board member John Snodgrass refused to answer questions because he is unhappy with Record-Eagle reporting, he said.
"I don't think my job is to share my opinion with the Record-Eagle," Snodgrass said.
If you go
Traverse City Light & Power board members will meet Tuesday at 5:15 p.m. on the second floor at the Governmental Center, 400 Boardman Ave. in Traverse City.
