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HomeMy Public PortalAbout09-16-2002 • PROCEEDINGS OF THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF RICHMOND,INDIANA,SERVING AS A BOARD IN CHARGE OF THE OPERATION OF THE RICHMOND POWER&LIGHT PLANT MONDAY,SEPTEMBER 16,2002 The Common Council of the City of Richmond,Indiana,serving as a Board in charge of the operations of the Richmond Power&Light Plant met in regular session at 7 p.m.Monday,September 16,2002 in the Council Chambers in the Municipal Building in said City.Chairperson Larry Parker presided with the following Councilmembers in attendance:Howard"Jack"Elstro,Etta J.Lundy,Karl Sharp,Bing Welch,Bruce Wissel,Paul Combs,Phil Dickman and Sarah"Sally"Hutton. The following business was conducted: ROLL CALL Nine present. APPROVAL OF MINUTES The minutes of the September 3,2002 meeting were approved on a motion by Councilmember Hutton,second by Councilmember Welch and the motion was carried on a voice vote. APPROVAL OF BILLS,INVESTMENTS AND TRANSFERS Upon recommendation of the Finance Committee,Councilmember Hutton moved to approve the following bills for payment,seconded by Councilmember Dickman and the motion was carried on a voice vote. Bills Already Paid: Payroll and Deductions (September 13,2002) $ 271,960.60 Investments Purchased From: Cash Operating Fund Bond Sinking Fund Utility Bond Reserve Fund Depreciation Reserve Fund Insurance Reserve Fund Consumer Deposit Fund Cash Reserve Fund Group Insurance Fund Total Telecommunications Division Investments Purchased From: Cash Operating Fund Transfer from Cash Operating Fund to: Cash Reserve Fund for Payment To City in lieu of taxes Transfer from Cash Operating Fund to: Depreciation Reserve Fund For Property&Plant Transfers from Depreciation Reserve to: • Cash Operating Fund Transfers from Consumer Deposit to: Cash Operating Fund Transfers from Utility Bond Reserve Fund to: Bond Sinking Fund Transfers from Cash Operating to: Interest and Bond Principal Bond Sinking Fund Cash Reserve Fund Utility Bond Sinking Fund Depreciation Reserve Fund Insurance Reserve Fund Consumer Deposit Fund Interest and Bond Principal End of Month Petty Cash Revenue Bonds Interest Coupons Redeemed Interest Coupons Redeemed Bond Coupons Miscellaneous Prepaid Invoices $ 89,527.96 Telecom.Div.Misc.Pre Paid Invoices: 26,508.12 Total Prepaid Invoices: 387,996.68 Total EFT/Direct Deposit of Payroll: (91,308.26) Total Prepaid Invoices: 296,688.42 Total EFT Transfers: 76,162.64 Total Prepaids plus EFT Transfers: 372,851.06 Total Bills Not Paid: 549,378.80 Grand Total of Bills to be approved: $ 922,229.86 RP&L Minutes Cont'd September 16,2002 Page 2 REMARKS BY CHAIRPERSON Chairperson Parker had no comments. UNFINISHED BUSINESS There was none. STREET LIGHT COMMITTEE REPORT Councilmember Elstro had no report. REPORT BY GENERAL MANAGER General Manager David Osburn shared the monthly newsletter that comes out of the Governor's office with Board members,pointing out that an entire page was dedicated to the electric vehicle which is now back at Richmond High School but will be back in the RP&L fleet next month. He said he had not talked about reliability for a while and he wanted to tell the Board that August was a very good month for RP&L.He said on the YTD,the utility is almost back up to where it was last year.He said the reliability numbers continue to be very high and he complimented the employees and the staff for seeing to it that that gets done. Osburn said that IMPA just issued an RFP for future power supply and in the IMPA system,IMPA is roughly obligated to meet close to 1,000 megawatts of power for the entire system and they buy power in different increments.He said that looking ahead,in the year 2007 Cynergy is not going to renew their power agreement and that is roughly about 450 megawatts of power that is going to have to be replaced.He said they may turn around and re-negotiate another contract with Cynergy so they may very well be that supplier. He said IMPA is looking at all the options and investigating a couple of coal plants and he thinks they may be going to investigate building their own plant.The other option,he said,is that members are welcome to bid on the power supply requirements,and he feels that that may be something that this Board wants to investigate.He added that if you do something like that it is not a simple decision and would not be under the same contracts the utility is under today. Councilmember Parker asked Osbum what size of plant would he be thinking of in doing this and Osburn said IMPA is really looking for smaller increments like 50 to 100 megawatt blocks with the latter being the maximum size.He said you could sometime double the size of the existing plant by sticking a gas turbine on along with a steam turbine. Conversation among the Board members ensued,with discussion centering on possibly using natural gas,water resources,building another unit some other place,possible contracts with IMPA,guaranteed price,a possible joint venture with IMPA and dual fuel turbines. When they got around talking about cost,Osburn estimated that a 100-watt plant might be as much as$120 million and that is why you would want a good contract so you could get those bonds paid off.He said any new plant has to meet more stringent requirements than what they have now and have to meet very tight environmental compliance.He said down the road,one of the options would be to retire one of the old units and that saves on some NOX compliance. Osburn said the numbers are scary,but when you keep in perspective of the size of the local utility that is not out of line.He said in doing this you might generate another six to eight jobs,but you also secure jobs for the future. He recommended working in conjunction with the IMPA staff to see if any numbers could be worked out that make sense and if it comes back and says maybe this is something that this utility could do,then it could be looked in to.He said if this could be done they would have to have those new contracts to protect RP&L.He said he feels if you could work something out that would protect RP&L and IMPA,it might be doable.He said to have sufficient generation to meet the needs of your community is an invaluable asset. - Councilmember Welch said he felt it would be worth going back over the Black&Veach report received several years ago on this subject and getting with the IMPA staff to put together some numbers.Osburn pointed out that a benefit is that if RP&L makes a margin off of this then that keeps the rates down.Councilmember Wissel said that somewhere down the road this Board is going to have to look into some type of permanent renewal either then or now so he feels it is worth investigating.At the end of the discussion,Chairperson Parker told Osbum that it looks like he has his answer and that is that the Board is interested.Osburn responded by saying that he would see if the IMPA staff could put together something on paper for the Board to look at. NEW BUSINESS There was none. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business,on a motion duly made,seconded and passed,the meeting was adjourned at 7:30 p.m. Larry Parker,Chairperson ATTEST: Norma Schroeder,Clerk