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9.29.03 Utilities: Lower flows could raise price of power Officials at Cooper Nuclear Station near Brownville, Neb., felt the heat this summer when a judge ordered dam releases dropped on the Missouri. The cooling water the plant was discharging back into the river reached 109 degrees, just short of its 110-degree federal limit. Had the temperature risen any more, the plant would have had to cut production, possibly forcing it to make up the difference through the volatile market for replacement power. This summer showed that lower flows to create wildlife habitat could affect the operations of as many as four Nebraska power plants that draw cooling water from the river. The Nebraska Public Power District, Cooper's operator, has said sustained low flows could increase its costs enough to require a 2 percent to 4 percent increase for customers. American Rivers' Chad Smith said it's still not clear that the plants would have problems. If they do, he said, the solution is for utilities to re-engineer the plants and alter cooling practices. Iowa's two riverside cooling plants, for example, already are engineered to handle a lower river, one discharging its cooling water into a restored riverside lake rather than directly back to the Missouri. A new plant going up in Council Bluffs also is being built with sufficient cooling capacity to create no thermal discharge concerns. Lower summer water flows also would mean less production from the federal government's hydroelectric dams on the Missouri during the time of year it's needed most. Those dams provide low-cost energy to dozens of Iowa and Nebraska utilities. Some small utilities depend on that power for a high percentage of their power, which they would probably have to replace with more expensive power on the market. Roger Patterson of the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources said a partial solution to that problem would be "up-rating" the hydro plants by replacing decades-old turbines and other equipment. More efficient turbines would allow the plants to produce more energy even with less river water. Officials say any of those power solutions on the river would probably cost millions and increase costs for customers, though probably not enough to stop Nebraska and Iowa from retaining some of the lowest electrical rates in the nation. Opponents of river change in the past have suggested that Nebraska and Iowa water utilities, including Omaha's M.U.D., could face difficulty drawing water from a lower river. But this summer's low flows on the river offered no evidence that the utilities will have any problems. "It was not an issue," an M.U.D. spokeswoman said. |
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