February 02, 2013
Saturday AM

Has anyone heard the loud far off whistle when you drive past the Bailey power house? That is the sound of all OUR hard earned money literally going up in smoke, smoke stack that is. I am in the process of going before the Ketchikan city council and asking them to make some policy changes and allow ALL private citizens and businesses if we choose to, to generate part of our own power and supply it back into the KPU power grid.

There are certain rules and regulations that need to be followed. This isn't going to make anybody rich, or solve our long term energy needs. This is just a way to allow KPU some time to get other projects off the ground and closer to completion, and also to urge the Ketchikan city council to look at alternative power sources, ie wind along with their recent energy conservation study.

Let's say at a cost of $3.50 a gallon that big diesel is burning about 12,000 gallons a day at 2/3 load, that is a cost of 42,000 dollars a day that WE the people pay. Now that same engine running full tilt burns in the neighborhood of 16,000 gallons a day and we are paying the price. And the diesel has been running roughly 21 out of the last 28 days. So back to elementary math 56,000 dollars a day times 21 is roughly 1.17 million dollars and that's just 21 days -- so think about it for 3-4 months. Can any of us afford that?

By allowing net metering any person that wishes to do this, would be allowed to send your extra power to the grid and in return it would lower your kwh usage and your bill. These can be expensive you might say. True to a point, but between the federal rebates and state rebates, depreciation, and savings a nice system would be about roughly 1/8 the full cost.

There was a recent state study and it showed a perfect spot for some wind turbines on the ridge top right behind Deer Mountain. Our own state says the wind up there is superb for some turbines. Kodiak just brought online their Pillar Mountain site and it's a very huge success. And they also allow net metering.

We are in the year 2013 and the technology is out there so let's not put all our eggs in one basket on all these hydro protects. Who is to say this coming summer we won't have a dry spell like the summer two years ago. Let's look outside the box and look at other options, to supplement our hydro projects.

I know there are people that will say well those wind turbines may kill some birds and I understand. I also have a few windows in my house that do that to, so what am I suppose to do, remove my windows? Birds also fly into power lines, it's part of nature. They also are killed by airplanes, so does that mean all planes are to be grounded? No, it means do your research and find ways to deter them.

Well enough is enough. This is just a way that I am asking for your support, so we can try and get these policies changed for the better of every paying electrical customer and our children's children.

Thank you,

Donald Petrey
kcfre [at] yahoo.com
Ketchikan Coalition for Renewable Energy
Ketchikan, AK

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