GLENDALE OKS CONTRACT FOR WIND-GENERATED POWER.

Byline: EUGENE TONG Staff Writer

GLENDALE -- Energy from the winds of southwest Wyoming will soon power local appliances by way of interstate power lines.

The City Council this week unanimously approved a roughly $1.8 million-per-year contract with PPM Energy Inc., to supply electricity for 16 years from a wind farm in Unita County, Wyo.

``It's a renewable resource so it doesn't contribute to carbon dioxide and other pollutants,'' Ned Bassin, the city of Glendale's power management administrator, said Thursday.

The deal buys enough turbine capacity to generate up to 10 megawatts of electricity if winds are blowing full force. The actual amount of power is a steady 3-MW stream -- enough for 600 customers, Bassin said.

``The wind doesn't always blow, and it doesn't always blow consistently hard for continuous power,'' he said.

It's the second wind-power deal for the city. Glendale Water & Power signed a 20-year deal in August 2003 with a Northern California wind farm at a rate of just over $50 per megawatt-hour, compared to $63 in the new contract. Electricity generated locally costs between $50 to $70 per MWh, Bassin said.

``During the last year with high energy prices, this contract has helped us save money,'' he said. When natural gas prices shot up last winter, electricity costs rose to between $80-$90 per MWh -- rates the wind energy contract helped buffer.

GWP serves about 80,000 customers and generates 30 percent of its electricity at the Grayson Power Plant and at the Magnolia Power Plant in Burbank, Bassin said. The rest is purchased from outside Southern California.

In 2003, the council set out to meet at least 20 percent of local power needs through renewable sources such as wind, hydroelectric dams and landfill gases by 2017. With the new wind contract, the tally is about 18 percent, Bassin said.

The city also is reviewing other proposals, including solar power, but Bassin said officials are not in any hurry.

``Because we're doing so well on this, we don't feel pushed to accept the next thing that comes along,'' he said.

Wind-farm development nationwide has intensified in recent years as energy costs continue to rise.

The Federal Aviation Administration has said applications for wind turbines have doubled over the past two years. About 2,200 of the 5,000 wind turbines proposed in the United States this year have been approved.

eugene.tong(at)dailynews.com

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