Underscoring the need for a local alternative energy source and a solution to the territory’s waste problems, Public Services Commission members shot down a petition recently filed by two local civic groups challenging the V.I. Water and Power Authority’s deal with Alpine Energy for waste-to-energy facilities in both districts.
Over the past six months, there have been two increases in Levelized Energy Adjustment Clause (LEAC) rates, and a petition is in the hopper for a third, PSC chairman Joseph Boschulte said during a Monday night meeting on St. Thomas. The territory can’t continue to hang its hat on the "hope" of finding a better deal five or more years down the road — it needs solutions now, he added.
But this might not be the end of the road for the V.I. Ratepayers Association and V.I. Conservation Society, which filed their petition with the PSC early this month. The groups’ attorney Emily Sabo said after the meeting that the PSC’s decision can be appealed in V.I. District Court within the next 60 days.
"I’ll check with my clients to see what they want to do," she said. Sabo made it clear during the meeting that 180 residents had signed onto the original petition, and 200 more have joined the cause over the past few weeks. The 30-plus-page document asks the PSC to rethink its approval of two 20-year power purchase and interconnection agreements between Alpine and the Authority, citing a number of "hidden costs" that could increase the financial risk to WAPA and local ratepayers.
Sabo and a few local residents touched on some of the petition’s main points during Monday’s meeting, saying they were not properly notified about previous PSC meetings held to consider the deal and were opposed to the use of pet coke as a primary fuel source for Alpine’s waste-burning generators.
Under the agreements, WAPA will be paying Alpine between 14- and 31-cents per kilowatt hour over the course of the 20-year agreement. Sabo said Monday those rates are "unreasonable" and should have been vetted in a public hearing before any approval was given.
She also said later that the PSC’s order does not reference any section of the V.I. Code that would give the commission the authority to handle anything other than setting rates when it comes to dealing with WAPA.
Tag-teaming with one of the authority’s attorneys, WAPA chief Hugo Hodge Jr. attacked the petition, saying that the PSC did not give the go-ahead to any rate increases, but gave WAPA a way to recover the power-purchase costs from Alpine.
WAPA sent out a request for proposals for renewable and alternative energy providers in late 2007 and went through an aggressive vetting process with a number of companies.
"At the end of the day, what someone tells you they can offer, and what they’ll actually negotiate and enter into an agreement for in terms of prices, are very different," he said.
The meeting really got heated when it came time to hash out solutions to the pet coke debate. As it currently stands, Alpine will be getting paid extra under the agreement to burn more trash than pet coke — another "hidden" cost that can be eliminated if "free" renewable energy sources, such as wind or solar, are used, Sabo said Monday.
The actual cost of the petitioners’ alternative energy proposals came under fire after St. Thomas resident Maurice Muia testified that the U.S. Energy Department is estimating solar to cost between nine- and 15-cents per kilowatt hour by 2015. The word "free" was subsequently thrown out the window by commission members, who noted that Hodge had said any alternative energy proposal comes attached with a cost, which would eventually be passed along to the ratepayers.
While commission member M. Thomas Jackson questioned the reliability of wind and solar technology — particularly in the face of maximum strength hurricane force winds — other testifiers tried to come up with some free energy solutions. However, Sabo struck a chord with many officials in the packed meeting room when she mentioned Island Wind Power and "self-generating" wind technology.
Island Wind Power (IWP) has been the driving force behind the installation of the two wind turbines at Tutu Park Mall, which have sat still for several months while the company has tried to hammer out an interconnection agreement with WAPA—an agreement Sabo is familiar with, serving as IWP’s attorney.
But the discussion leveled out later when St. Thomas resident Clarence Payne, after championing the public’s right to be heard, said the territory might be moving backward by selecting a fuel source that might be on its way to becoming obsolete within the next five years. With all the federal dollars going to back the alternative energy movement, why not still try to work on the waste problems while investing money in technology that could be viable for the territory down the road, Payne asked.
For Boschulte, the answer was simple.
"We’ve been working to find a solution to lessen our dependency on fuel," he said. "Your solution takes us five years down the road, so there’s really no change. You’ll have people relying on hope, when we have to do something about it now."
While Hodge said after the meeting he expected the PSC to deny the petition, he added that WAPA will be holding a public forum in January to educate residents about the deal and to address some of the "misconceptions that are out there."
Voting to deny the petition were Boschulte, along with commission members Donald "Ducks" Cole, Verne C. David and Jackson. Commission member Elsie V. Thomas-Trotman cast the dissenting vote, while member Sirri Hamad was absent.
