By ANDREA POTEET
Sunday Times Newspapers
WYANDOTTE – A new project Wyandotte Municipal Services plans to join would allow the department to provide natural gas at reduced costs.
WMS announced Monday that it plans to join 12 other communities in buying natural gas from Fremont Energy Center, a combined cycle natural gas-powered plant in Fremont, Ohio, run by American Municipal Power Inc., a nonprofit energy distribution company.
They plan to enter into a power-purchase agreement with Michigan Public Power Agency, which has purchased 32 megawats of natural gas from the plant. The power-purchase agreement will allow WMS to sell excess power it purchases at a profit.
WMS is to pay $25,000 to join the project and will purchase up to five megawats, WMS Assistant General Manager James French said. French said the agreement will allow the company to provide natural gas, which would otherwise be too costly to burn in its own boilers. The project will also provide energy diversification for the department, which recently
branched out into geothermal energy.
Bonds for the project are to be covered by MPPA, but there is a $100,000 fee to be split amongst all participants if MPPA opts out of the project.
Also involved are Bay City, Charlevoix, Chelsea, Eaton Rapids, Harbor Springs, Hart, Holland, Lowell, Petosky, Portland, St. Louis and Zeeland.