By GENE KEMMETER
of The Gazette
The village of Plover is the proposed site for a new electrical power plant.
Southern Energy Inc., a global energy company headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., wants to build a plant along Highway 54, east of Grant Avenue and west of Foremost Road. The company is the largest producer of electricity in the United States.
The plant would be at least 590 megawatts in size, or about twice as large in electricity production as Weston 3, located west of the intersection of Interstate 39 and Business Highway 51 near Rothschild. The Weston plant generates 321 megawatts, and two older plants at the site generate another 135 megawatts, making the capacity there 456 megawatts.
The proposal for the plant will be the subject of a public informational meeting at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 28, at Roosevelt Elementary School in Plover.
The plant will also be the subject of a public hearing for a conditional use permit at the Plover Planning Commission meeting at 6:15 p.m. Monday, Oct. 2.
The plant would use two natural gas-fueled turbines to drive generators to make electricity, according to a release from Southern Energy, which compared the turbines as operating like muffled jet engines.
The release says the process is efficient and enhanced further by capturing waste heat from the turbines to convert water to steam. "This is the cleanest way to make electricity commercially," said Tim Berrigan, who is overseeing development of the project for Southern Energy.
The company began operating a 300-megawatt "peaking" power plant in the town of Neenah earlier this year. A "peaking" power plant is used only when demand for electricity is extremely high.
Southern Energy indicated an additional 320 megawatts of "peaking" power could be added to the Plover site.
The site is in an area mentioned at least twice previously for power plants, although the sites were eventually abandoned as a possible location.
The prime considerations for the site, said Richard Holden, Plover community development director, are the proximity to transmission lines south of Highway 54, getting water for the cooling process from the Wisconsin River and bringing natural gas to the plant.
The site is the 112-acre Okray property, and the alternate site is another Okray property in the town of Plover across 54 from the prime site.
If built on the property in the village, Holden said the site would have one or two towers in the village and a third south of 54 to connect with the existing transmission lines.
In addition to approval from the village, Southern Energy will need approval for the project from the state Department of Natural Resources and the Wisconsin Public Service Commission.
A spokesperson for the Public Service Commission said an application has not been filed yet, but two alternative sites are required in case of environmental concerns. Sixty days before applying to the PSC, an engineering plan needs to be filed with the DNR for all its permits, including diverting water from the river, the transmission lines and gas pipes.
Southern Energy hopes the plant will be operating by 2003.
Village Trustee Roger Bullis released the information about the plant Thursday, Sept. 14, saying the Village Board was informed the night before about the informational meeting as well as the pending Planning Commission action. "This project may or may not benefit the entire community. We need to carefully weight the pollution issues versus the economic gain," he said.
Bullis said he's concerned that the project has major implications for the village and officials are proceeding at "breakneck speed."
The power-plant issue surfaced just days after village residents rejected a proposed casino-hotel-convention center operated by the Lac du Flambeau band of the Chippewa Indians.