One tiny hole: The cost of government regulations
Our power provider, East Kentucky Power Cooperative (EKPC), works hard to produce reliable, cost-competitive, sustainable electricity for our members. Over the years, EKPC has invested well over $1 billion adding equipment at its power plants to reduce emissions.
As a result, sulfur dioxide emissions have fallen by almost 95 percent and nitrogen oxide by more than 75 percent.
Meanwhile, U.S. federal government regulations continue to push down emission limits. Eventually, it will be virtually impossible to operate a reliable power plant at a reasonable cost.
Here is an example. A generating unit at one of EKPC’s power plants features over 8,200 fabric filter bags to remove particulate. When spread out on the ground, those filter bags would cover 6 football fields. EPA recently announced its latest update to particulate regulations. Under the new rules, if a single one of those 8,200 fabric filter bags gets a finger-sized hole, the unit will have to shut down.
What happens then? When the unit shuts down, EKPC must get electricity from somewhere else, either generating electricity using a more-expensive unit, or buying electricity on the market. If this happens during a period when demand is high and all EKPC’s other units already are running, a single finger-sized hole inside of 6 football fields easily could cost millions of dollars.
Who pays? Our members. Our cooperatives are not-for-profit organizations. We are always looking for ways to minimize costs. But when costs go up, it ultimately hits power bills.
That is the cost of government regulations.
That is why we take seriously each and every decision to spend money on new power plants. Traditionally, the cooperative way has been to build, operate and maintain equipment as long as possible in order to get as much value as possible.
Unfortunately, U.S. federal government regulations clearly are aimed at quickly eliminating reliable coal plants in favor of renewable facilities. The coal unit in question is less than 20 years old and can easily provide power another 40 years.
That’s not fair to Kentucky or to our members.
As a result, we are fighting for you. With electric cooperatives across the nation, we are challenging these radical regulations in the courts.