Despite having the money allocated in its budget, Logansport Municipal Utilities will hold back on a $43,000 wind energy feasibility study in an area south of the city.

At last week’s Utility Service Board meeting, board vice president Todd Miller asked for a cost-benefit analysis before LMU moved ahead with the project.

Miller said he had to be sure that it was money worth spending given the estimated $3 million cost of erecting a single wind turbine.

In a telephone interview last week, Miller reiterated the point.

“A cost-benefit analysis is a typical thing to do when making a business decision to evaluate expenditure and income potential,” Miller said. “My thing is that before we spend $50,000 on a test aspect of this study is that we should make some assessments of whether wind power is viable or not. If we can only afford to put up two wind turbines, it may not make sense to spend that money.”

Miller’s request followed a presentation by Bob Dunderman, the LMU electrical distribution manager, on the proposed study. The $43,000 project is for a 60 meter steel meteorological tower that would include three wind sensors at various heights.

Dunderman said the study would last between 18 and 24 months at which point National Wind Assessment and Wind Data, which has expressed interest in conducting the study, would have a model of what LMU could potentially do with wind power.

Dunderman informed the board that as a clean energy source, wind energy could be used to offset the carbon emissions of the utility’s coal generating plant, consistent with growing federal pressure for power companies to use more sources of renewable energy.

“For every 40 megawatts of energy produced by a coal plant, five percent has to come from renewable energy,” Dunderman said. “Wind is an option. Whether it is a viable option we won’t know until the cost assessment is done.”

As well as wind power, during the meeting Superintendent Paul Hartman discussed LMU’s progress on burning renewable fuels at its Race Street plant.

He said a proposal to burn switch grass was still “three to five years out” but he said the facility would complete a test burn of corn cobs in September after discussions with The Andersons.

By doing the test in September, Hartman said, plant operators would have plenty of time to try a variety of combinations of corn cobs and coal and to see how the plant reacts to burning different fuels.

“It is not totally corn cobs, but a combination of corn cobs and coal,” Hartman said. “This may be 10 percent or 20 percent. We might find that five percent may not be doable, but that is the point of the test.”

Miller said he saw biomass fuels as the most logical area for LMU to reach its renewable energy target.

The company is also looking into using a tire-derived fuel that would pump a burnable gas into the plant’s stokers, along with burning sludge and using municipal solid waste.

Hartman said that this option appears to be unlikely because Cass County does not have sufficient solid waste supplies to meet demand, but he emphasized that LMU was working hard to consider every possible opportunity.

“We are going to look at all of the options that are available, and we will keep plugging away at it,” Hartman said. “We are in a good position to secure a new fuel source for the future of Logansport.”

Kevin Smith can be contacted at (574) 732-5148 or via e-mail at kevin.smith@pharostribune.com