Powell, WY windmill project advances despite red tape

When people describe Wyoming weather, wind always figures in.

It’s usually divided into "good" and "bad" categories – good wind keeps the heat off, bad wind wrecks hairstyles and homesteads.

By ALLISON BATDORFF
Gazette Wyoming Bureau

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?ts=1&display=rednews/2004/05/22/build/wyoming/30-windmill.inc

Andy Rose likes good wind, and soon his lifestyle will depend on it.

Rose is setting the foundation on a Bergey Excel turbine tailored to harness the winds that come rolling in from the north over his neighbor’s alfalfa field. Rising 55 feet above the ground, the turbine starts juicing up with minimum wind speeds of 7.5 miles an hour. It really starts cooking at speeds above 30 miles per hour, Rose said.

Rose’s front-yard energy source is capable of producing 10 kilowatts an hour, enough to run the Roses’ Heart Mountain household with enough left over to power another one like it. Any excess energy will go back to the local power cooperative, Garland Light and Power.

"It just makes sense to me," Rose said. "I get good wind and given our current energy situation, it just seemed like the right thing to do."

Rose, a civil engineer, started working on the project two years ago and plans to have his turbine working in July.

But it was no breeze to get this far, Rose said.

The novelty of small-time (25 kilowatts or less) wind producers in Wyoming has led to confusing and conflicting interpretations of the state’s "net metering" law that regulates power producers who also want to stay tied to the grid.

"I’m still not happy," Rose said. "If I would have realized all the red tape that was involved, I would have tried to get off the grid. But it’s a trade-off. If you were off the grid, you could run down a battery with a vacuum cleaner. I didn’t want to make that kind of lifestyle change."

Net metering

But being a pioneer can carry a cost. Rose will spend about $35,000 to build his wind turbine, and he’s not sure when he’ll be able to recoup the expense. One reason is that interpretations of the net metering law differ.

Net metering was set up so individual customers would produce the energy mainly for their own use with the utility purchasing any excess power. The agreement between them has to be approved by the Wyoming Public Service Commission, explained Mary Ann Keeler, manager of Garland Light and Power.

"We’re all working through it, and everything in the law wasn’t set in stone," Keeler said. "Rose was the first one on our system."

Rose contested several portions of the agreement, leading to two years of negotiations with both his local energy provider, Garland Light and Power of Powell, and the Wyoming Public Service Commission.

Garland’s practice of charging a separate interconnection rate to hook into their system and the law’s stipulation that excess energy is sold back at a rate 40 percent below wholesale unfairly penalizes the producer, Rose said. His turbine will create enough power to run two homes, he said.

The monitoring system, which calls for a "bidirectional" meter to be installed at his home, is more expensive and less efficient than a meter that simply spins in both directions, Rose said.

But the factors affecting wind power economics seem as complex and changeable as the weather.

"There is also the federal energy production tax credit that expired, and the new language of Energy Bill that will affect the economics of the project," Rose said.

Incentives

Only 5 percent of Wyoming’s power comes from wind, according to Steve Ellenbecker, energy policy adviser for Gov. Dave Freudenthal. But the concept is steadily gaining momentum.

And that’s because of the good wind, he said.

The state’s mixed terrain of mountains and plains makes for good wind creation. As the sun cooks the uneven earth, hot air rises, pressure drops, and cool air rushes in to make blows, gusts and breezes.

"Wyoming is a world-class wind resource, and we’re working to promote large- and small-scale wind development," Ellenbeck said. "This is a young industry with lots of opportunities."

The state is working on tax incentives for wind developers and combinations with coal-fired plants, he said.

Large corporations are also turning their energies towards wind power. Garland supplier Tri-State provides "green energy" from wind for a special rate, to complement energy produced from gas, coal and hydropower through Western Area Power, Keeler said.

But so far, none of Keeler’s 1,650 customers has requested it, she said.

"They don’t want it because it usually costs more from our supplier," Keeler said.

But the number of small-time producers is growing, Rose said, and he is going to keep working on changing the net metering law for those who are interested in the possibilities of wind power.

"It’s important to be proactive," Rose said. "Maybe it won’t help me, but it may help someone down the road."

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