October 14, 2003

After six months of construction, East Kentucky Power Cooperative (EKPC) has begun operation of Kentucky's first plants to produce electric power from decaying municipal trash.

“This is a major step forward in developing renewable energy in Kentucky,” said Ralph Tyree, EKPC’s program manager of non-traditional power production. “The energy from these plants is enough renewable electric power for our members to supply about 7,000 Kentucky homes.”

At most landfills, gas is either emitted into the atmosphere or burned off. The three new plants (located at the Bavarian Landfill in Boone County, the Laurel Ridge Landfill in Laurel County and the Green Valley Landfill in Greenup County) produce clean, renewable energy.

As a result of the plants beginning production, EKPC now ranks as one of the leaders in renewable energy production in the Southeastern United States. Each plant cost about $4 million to build.

“I think the program is going to have a tremendous impact,” Tyree said. “Right now, the gas quality is at or above our expectations. The positive impact of these facilities on the environment reflects positively on the efforts of people at EKPC and our member co-ops who have contributed to this program’s success.”

At least 12 electric cooperatives will sell the output from the plants to retail customers through a program called EnviroWatts. Owen Electric Cooperative, which supplies electricity to nine Northern Kentucky counties, was the first Kentucky co-op to offer green power to customers.

EnviroWatts began after Owen Electric received inquiries from Toyota Motor Manufacturing about supplying green power to its North American headquarters, located in Erlanger. Toyota is purchasing enough renewable power from Owen Electric to supply a significant portion of the energy for its laboratory on the headquarters campus.

Through EnviroWatts, customers pay only $2.75 more per month for each 100 kilowatt block of green power. The customer has the option to enroll for all or just a portion of their electric bill.

In addition to Owen Electric in Owenton, other participating EnviroWatts co-ops include: Blue Grass Energy Cooperative of Nicholasville, Clark Energy in Winchester, Cumberland Valley Electric in Gray, Grayson RECC of Grayson, Inter-County Energy of Danville, Jackson Energy of McKee, Licking Valley in West Liberty, Nolin RECC of Elizabethtown, Owen Electric in Owenton, Salt River Electric of Bardstown, Shelby Energy of Shelbyville and South Kentucky Rural Electric in Somerset.

Public tours of the plant will also be offered beginning in mid-November. School groups, organizations or interested individuals will be able to tour the plants to understand how the projects work and benefit the environment.

Of the 6,000 landfills across the U.S., there are about 340 with landfill gas-to-electric projects currently in operation. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates as many as 500 additional landfills could cost effectively tap methane as an energy source, producing enough electricity to power one million homes across the country.

EKPC is a not-for-profit organization that provides wholesale energy to 16 distribution cooperatives that serve more than 468,000 Kentucky homes, farms, businesses and industries across 89 counties. Together, EKPC and the member cooperatives are known as Kentucky's Touchstone Energy Cooperatives.

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