HomeMy WebLinkAboutElectric Board - Minutes - 10/18/2000Minutes approved by the Board at the
FORT COLLINS ELECTRIC BOARD MINUTES
meeting
Regular Meeting Oci:ober 18, 2000 at 5 p.m.
Council Liaison: Scott Mason Staff Liaison: Heather Hoxen — 221-6700 (W)
Chairperson: Jim Welch Phone: 498-8947 (W/H)
Vice Chair: Richard Smart Phone: 221-4474 (H)
A regular meeting of the Fort Collins Electric Board was held at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, October 18,
2000, in the Utilities Training Room at 700 Wood Street, Fort Collins, Colorado.
BOARD PRESENT:
Doug Smith, Ginger Purvis, Guy Helme, Jeff Eighmy, Richard Smart
STAFF PRESENT:
Bob Kost, Dennis Sumner, Doug Swartz, Eric Dahlgren, Gary Schroeder, Heather Hoxeng, Lloyd
Dixon, Mike Smith, Wendy Williams
Phil Friedman
Lu Fisk of the League of Women Voters
CSU's Environmental Engineering Club
GUESTS:
Mayor Ray Martinez
Dr. Maurice Albertson
APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
Jeff Eighmy motioned to approve the minutes of the September meeting. Guy Helme seconded the
motion and it passed unanimously.
MAYOR RAY MARTINEZ:
At Jim Welch's request, Mayor Martinez attended the meeting to express his interest in looking into
moving toward converting to a hydrogen economy. He stated that he had attended the recent
Hydrogen Conference organized by Dr. Albertson and had learned a lot.
FORT COLLINS — A CITY TOWARD HYDROGEN DEVELOPMENT:
Maurice Albertson, a Colorado State University (CSU) professor gave a presentation entitled "Fort
Collins — A City Toward Hydrogen Development" He introduced the presentation by stating that
pollution is having an impact on climate change and alternative energy sources play an important
role in decreasing air pollution.
Three primary sources of air pollution are vehicles, buildings (with heating, refrigeration, etc.) and
industry. The "social costs" associated with air pollution are estimated to be in the billions of
dollars. Dr. Albertson stated these costs should be taken into consideration when calculating the
cost of converting to hydrogen.
He stated that most people do not know much about hydrogen. Hydrogen is a non-polluting fuel,
and its' exhaust is water. Internal combustion vehicles could be converted in a day with a kit that
costs about $2,000. A dial on the vehicle control panel can vary the hydrogen with gasoline from
zero to 100 percent according to the availability of refueling sources. With as little as 10 percent
hydrogen usage, the exhaust is cleaner than the intake air.
Dr. Albertson stated hydrogen, which can be made from renewable resources, could replace all
fossil fuels being used to generate today's electricity including natural gas, petroleum, and coal.
Natural gas is the cheapest way to create hydrogen. Creating hydrogen from water is two -to -three
times more expensive.
Hydrogen can be transported in liquid form because it is so light. It is safer to transport than
gasoline, diesel or natural gas. If there is a leak, hydrogen rises into the air and immediately
dissipates.
When natural gas or coal is used as a source of creating hydrogen, hydrocarbons are a byproduct of
the process. Marketing the resulting hydrocarbons could help offset the cost of hydrogen. Tennis
racquets, golf clubs, and some car bodies are already being made from carbon. Being able to market
the carbon would decrease the cost of hydrogen.
Dr. Albertson also stated that hydrogen can be created from methane. Methane, a result of
anaerobic digestion of biomass wastes, is then put through a reformer to obtain hydrogen. He said
that if we were to take all the organic material in the United States and convert it to methane, we
could turn off the gas wells.
Elements that need to be considered to convert to a hydrogen economy include the technical factors,
industrial and business stakeholders, and financial and economic stakeholders. The technological
factors of hydrogen include production, delivery, thermochemical applications, electrochemical
applications, environmental effects, safety issues, and economics of hydrogen utilization in
comparison with fossil fuels. Industrial and business stakeholders, such as production,
transportation storage and dispensing businesses; the motor vehicle industry; utility industry;
petroleum industry and aerospace industry need to accept the idea and integrate it. Stakeholders
would be needed to fund the conversion process.
Dr. Albertson emphasized that the government would need to pass legislation to help facilitate the
process on a national, state and local level. Non -governmental organizations concerned about
energy and pollution from fossil fuels need to push for legislation concerning the use of hydrogen.
Dr. Albertson concluded his presentation by challenging the Electric Board to help Fort Collins
become the first city completely converted to hydrogen. Since Fort Collins owns its' electric
distribution system, the City has complete control of how they receive their electricity. Dr.
Albertson stated that the technology will be available in the near future to use electricity to produce
hydrogen, which will make the process comparable in price to a regular electric system. His
suggestion was to have a task committee, appointed by the Board, create a report on how Fort
Collins could use hydrogen to meet the energy needs of the city. He offered to work with such a
committee.
A question was raised as to how someone would convince the community to accept such a major
change. Dr. Albertson said that he recently recruited Phil Walker to promote changing hydrogen to
cities around the world. Mr. Walker will be trying to convince the City of Fort Collins through the
media.
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Another question was asked concerning possible conversion of the landfill to create hydrogen. The
person asked what percentage of the landfill would supply methane if it was converted. Dr.
Albertson stated that it would be very important to use the landfill, sludge from the Drake Water
Reclamation Facility and sludge from the hog farms around town to create hydrogen. These
combined resources could create half of the hydrogen required to meet the energy needs of Fort
Collins. Mike Smith has agreed to provide a certain number of truckloads of sludge from the Drake
Water Reclamation Facility for a project Dr. Albertson is proposing. Jannelle Henderson, who
works at the landfill, has agreed to provide biomass from the landfill.
Ginger Purvis asked if there has been discussion with private industry such as automobile
manufacturers to help subsidize this program. Dr. Albertson stated that the primary work with
manufacturers has been with the International Hydrogen Energy Association (IHEA), which has
challenged Shell Corporation to join in the research of hydrogen technology. Shell Corporation has
since created an entire division to research the possibilities of hydrogen. BMW already has vehicles
running on hydrogen. All of the vehicles at Munich Airport are hydrogen propelled.
A question was asked about using renewable energy to produce hydrogen from electrolysis. The
guest was wondering if the constraint was the higher cost of using renewables or a lack of
technology. Dr. Albertson answered that the problem is the cost of using renewables to produce
electricity. He stated that renewables would only be an option if they were available for 2 or 3 cents
per kilowatt-hour (kWh).
Mike Smith asked if any thought had been given to using the off-peak time of a wind turbine to
create hydrogen for peak time. Dr. Albertson stated that Germany has a contract with Quebec
Hydro to nun their water through the turbines and produce energy that is inexpensive enough for
Germany to produce liquid hydrogen.
Gary Schroeder, Energy Services Engineer for the City of Fort Collins Utilities, attended the Forum
on Converting to a Hydrogen Economy, which was held in Fort Collins, September 22-24, 2000. He
shared with the Board some of what he had learned.
Hydrogen can be produced from fossil fuels such as natural gas, from digestion of organic wastes
(biofuels), or through electrolysis of water. The latter requires an input of electricity. If this
electricity is produced from renewable sources such as solar, wind, hydro, etc., the hydrogen
produced is known as Solar Hydrogen.
Conventional electric generation can also be used to produce hydrogen. Using off-peak power
would make the most sense economically. Hydrogen could be produced using off-peak
conventional and renewable power, stored and then used during peak periods to power a turbine
or fuel cell. He pointed out that it is less expensive to send hydrogen through a pipeline than it is to
send electricity through wires.
Fuel cell industries, transportation companies and other traditional markets rely on natural gas and
petroleum, which are both limited resources. The demand for new electric generation capacity is
growing quickly and most utilities are meeting this need through construction of natural -gas -fueled
generation. Natural gas and petroleum reserves are being depleted and developing new fields
takes time and is expensive.
Adequate safety standards for using hydrogen would need to be in place. Mr. Schroeder said the
International Standards Organization (ISO) has had a hydrogen committee for approximately 10
years. Also, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Compressed Gas
Association (CGA), and the Department of Transportation (DOT) already have specific standards in
place.
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There are a few hydrogen energy projects in place in other parts of the country. Florida is
promoting hydrogen as a pollution prevention strategy. They are working with Shell and Daimler -
Chrysler to look at supply options. The Florida initiative is also looking at converting to hydrogen
to help the economy. Millions of dollars flow out of the state each year to purchase petroleum fuel.
Producing hydrogen in state would keep that money at home and improve the local economy. The
infrastructure already exists for a hydrogen economy in Florida. The largest hydrogen propelled
vehicle is the space shuttle and there is a plant in Pensacola sized to send a shuttle up every two
weeks. Since the shuttles are only being sent up about every six weeks, there is a lot of extra
capacity available.
Mr. Schroeder stated that hydrogen technology is evolving to be used with fuel cells. General
Electric (GE) has partnered with the fuel cell company Plug Power to supply residential fuel cells.
These systems will be fed water and natural gas from the existing home supply lines. A reformer
will create hydrogen, which will then be converted to electricity in a fuel cell stack sized at 7 kW.
Bonneville Power Administration and IdaTech have partnered in fuel cell technology and have a
beta test stage for 50 small systems. Avista, in Washington State is also testing 200 units, however,
their units are marketed with the option of cartridge replacement of components so that a complete
shut -down is unnecessary.
Some hydrogen pilot projects are: Chicago Transit Authority, which has three Ballard fuel cell
buses; Sun Light Transit, which has 50 CNG busses being converted to run on hydrogen; and
Everett Jennings, which has created a hydrogen powered fuel cell for wheelchairs.
It would cost approximately $0.21 per gallon of gas equivalent (GGE) to run a vehicle on hydrogen,
if the hydrogen was purchased from an industrial gas supplier. To create hydrogen from electricity
through electrolysis, the cost would be $2.15 to $3.30 GGE at $0.055 kWh (60-90 percent electrolyser
efficiency). These estimates do not include the costs of the equipment and necessary maintenance.
In conclusion, pilot programs are probably the best way to get started toward a hydrogen economy.
This could include fuel cell demonstration sites, hydrogen production from biomass or renewables,
and production of hydrogen from landfill gas.
2001 WORK PLAN:
The 2000 Work Plan was adapted by the Board for use as the 2001 Work Plan. The items amended
were:
♦ Number 3: The language "...and other contemporary issues related to the electric
industry" was added.
♦ Number 6B: The language "...hydrogen..." and "other entities" was added
♦ Number 8: The language "...REPORTS AND OTHER ACTIVITIES CONCERNING
DEREGULATION" was added.
♦ Number 11: The Board chose to delete this item.
Doug Smith motioned to adopt the 2001 Work Plan with amendments, Ginger Purvis seconded, and
the motion passed unanimously.
INFORMATION SHARING:
Heather Hoxeng reminded the Board that the Annual Report will need to be turned in by February
6, 2001, and she will have a copy available for approval in the next agenda packet.
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