Second wind energy project quietly goes into service

By Ken Ward Jr.
Staff writer



West Virginia has a second wind-energy project up and running.

NedPower Mount Storm LLC's turbines are generating electricity along the Allegheny Front in Grant County.

Developers of the 264-megawatt project confirmed the project's status in response to reports from local residents that turbines appeared to be operating.

Karl R. Neddenien, a spokesman for Dominion Resources Inc., said that some of the turbines have been producing power since the first of the year.

Neddenien at first declined to confirm that information, and later refused to provide any details about how many turbines were operating.

"The number of units operating on any given day changes, given wind conditions, and the amount of energy generated also changes," Neddenien said.

PJM Interconnection, which manages the regional electrical grid, lists the NedPower project as "in service" as of the third quarter of 2007.

In late February, Dominion told its shareholders that the 164-megawatt first phase of NedPower was to be fully operational by June 2008. The second phase was expected to be fully operational by December 2008.

In December 2006, Dominion bought a 50 percent interest in a joint venture with Shell WindEnergy to develop the NedPower project.


West Virginia has a second wind-energy project up and running.

NedPower Mount Storm LLC's turbines are generating electricity along the Allegheny Front in Grant County.

Developers of the 264-megawatt project confirmed the project's status in response to reports from local residents that turbines appeared to be operating.

Karl R. Neddenien, a spokesman for Dominion Resources Inc., said that some of the turbines have been producing power since the first of the year.

Neddenien at first declined to confirm that information, and later refused to provide any details about how many turbines were operating.

"The number of units operating on any given day changes, given wind conditions, and the amount of energy generated also changes," Neddenien said.

PJM Interconnection, which manages the regional electrical grid, lists the NedPower project as "in service" as of the third quarter of 2007.

In late February, Dominion told its shareholders that the 164-megawatt first phase of NedPower was to be fully operational by June 2008. The second phase was expected to be fully operational by December 2008.

In December 2006, Dominion bought a 50 percent interest in a joint venture with Shell WindEnergy to develop the NedPower project.

The project is located on a 14-mile-long site just east of Mount Storm Lake in Grant County. The facility is eventually to include up to 200 wind turbines. Each is to be mounted on a 210- to 450-foot-high tower, with three 115-foot-long blades.
In June 2007, the state Supreme Court voted 4-1 to send back to circuit court a nuisance case seeking to block the NedPower project. No trial date has been set in that case.

Opponents have also filed a formal notice of intent to sue the project over possible damage to endangered bats and squirrels.

Previously, the 44 giant windmills at the Mountaineer Wind Energy Center on Backbone Mountain in Tucker County were the only wind towers operating in West Virginia.

Developers have proposed a variety of projects to expand wind power generation in West Virginia and across the region. They see strong winds along the state's eastern mountain ridges as a source of clean power to replace coal and help deal with the climate change crisis.

But opponents, including some local citizens, argue that wind power will make little difference in the nation's energy needs, while huge industrial wind "farms" will kill birds and bats, as well as damage scenic views. Reps. Nick J. Rahall and Alan Mollohan, both D-W.Va., also have been critical of wind power expansion, and a federal audit found little effective state regulation of the growing industry.

Last month, the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy announced that it would oppose all large, utility-scale wind energy projects in the state unless "it is demonstrated that the power to be produced by the project would replace power which otherwise would be generated through the burning of coal."

Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or 348-1702.

Aaron wrote:What was the WVHC stance on Ned Power Frank?

Did the public service commission meet the demands of the WVHC in their permitting procedures?

However, the Highlands Conservancy insists that your Commission, as the only existing permitting agency for West Virginia wind power generating facilities, needs to develop and implement full, comprehensive and objective siting criteria for wind turbines. Appropriate siting criteria should at least include consideration of visual and noise effects on certain public recreation areas and other recognized special places, consideration of the habitats and populations of rare and endangered species of plants and animals, consideration of the effects of wind power facilities on known flyways for local and migratory birds, and consideration of impacts on stream headwaters by earth disturbances caused by roads and other construction.
Too, the Highlands Conservancy believes that before your Commission issues certificates of convenience and necessity for wind power facilities that it should determine that the construction and operation of these facilities will comport in all respects with the federal Endangered Species Act and Migratory Bird Act.
Further, we believe that your Commission should internalize the relevant expertise to conduct the appropriate ecological studies and reports needed to effect good wind turbine siting recommendations. Such expertise should include the ability to conduct avian assessments, rare and endangered species and wetlands surveys, and sight and sound analyses.
We believe that this internal (or contracted) Commission scientific expertise is necessary because of the need to conduct credible studies and because of the dynamic of wind project developer’s budgets available for these assessments vis-a-vis that of citizen environmental organizations.
The Highlands Conservancy has learned that the pool of local ornithologists and endangered species scientists is small; so small that when they are first retained by the wind power industry no one qualified and willing is available for review on behalf of the Commission or citizen environmental organizations.
We believe that the Commission should internalize these scientific studies as perhaps either an attachment to your existing office of Consumer Advocate, or as adjunct capability to your existing engineering section. Or as an alternative to internalizing this scientific expertise, we believe that the Commission should consider having wind power project applicants fund the required studies, but as studies commissioned by the Public Service Commission, rather than by the applicant.

Stephanie wrote:LOL!

You guys have to stop messing with me! I went looking for the duplicate but you must have already deleted it!

SheikBen wrote:

Stephanie wrote:LOL!

You guys have to stop messing with me! I went looking for the duplicate but you must have already deleted it!

Quick, complain to the French!