Correcting the record on energy: We need a balance moving forward. | Opinion
As the President of Kentucky Utilities Company and Louisville Gas and Electric Company, I fully agree with the opening words of a recent opinion piece by Senate President Robert Stivers: “Kentucky residents deserve to have their energy needs met at a reasonable cost… .” Providing safe, reliable, and low-cost service is what we do every day, and have for many years at LG&E and KU for our nearly one million electric service customers. We do it around the clock and in the most severe weather conditions, on the hottest days and the coldest nights. I could not be prouder of the hard work our people perform every hour of every day to provide the vital, reliable service our customers expect and deserve.
That is why a recent letter op-ed demands this response. First, it is simply incorrect that “Kentucky is facing an electric reliability crisis.” We have successfully relied on our generating facilities, including our natural gas units, to supply electricity on the hottest and coldest days of the year for decades. That is why the service outage resulting from Winter Storm Elliott stood out so starkly: it was a first-of-its-kind event. We have no intention of having it happen again, so we are taking all reasonable steps with our own generating facilities, as well as our natural gas pipeline service providers, to protect against having such an event reoccur.
Second, to be clear, KU and LG&E’s proposal currently before the Kentucky Public Service Commission would result in the majority of our current coal fleet continuing in service. The coal-fired units we have proposed to retire are near the end of their useful lives and would require significant additional investment to maintain reliable operation and comply with current and pending environmental requirements. Based on extensive analysis, we have shown that retiring these units and replacing their capacity with new, efficient natural gas-fired generation and solar resources would result in lower costs and reliable service for our nearly one million customers. It is a far better plan than making additional investments in aging coal units that emit far more pollutants and are more vulnerable to increasingly strict environmental requirements. In short, our proposal falls squarely in the middle of the debate between the coal industry and the environmental advocates, is the lowest cost solution when compared to any other alternative, and by 2030 results in a diversified energy mix of approximately 50% coal, 40% gas and 10% renewables that reduces carbon emissions and other pollutants in the communities we serve.
Third, we agree that the transition from fossil fuel-fired generation to renewable generation or any other generating technology will take time. Our proposal reflects that view. It includes a broad array of voluntary demand-side management programs to promote energy efficiency and investments in solar facilities and a battery energy storage system, but it emphatically does not make our ability to reliably serve customers contingent upon the success of those programs and facilities. Rather, we believe these investments will help reduce total costs and improve reliability over time. They are an important first step toward a cleaner grid, consistent with affordable and reliable service while we continue to use our remaining coal fleet when economic to do so.
Fourth, the reality of KU and LG&E’s proposal is that certain parties oppose it because they are against retiring any coal units at all. Others oppose our proposal because it wouldn’t replace retiring coal units with renewable energy alone. The fact is that the only “pressure” we are under is to ensure we serve our customers reliably and affordably. And some of Kentucky’s largest commercial and industrial customers, which collectively employ tens of thousands of Kentuckians and depend on reliable, low-cost electric service, largely support the Companies’ proposals, particularly the new proposed gas-fired units. It would not be in these vital Kentucky employers’ interest to advance an “electric reliability crisis” or needlessly increase the cost of service.
In conclusion, some of our oldest coal plants need to be retired. As Kentucky’s Abraham Lincoln observed, “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.” Kentuckians certainly do “deserve to have their energy needs met at a reasonable cost.” That is precisely what KU and LG&E have done for more than a century, and it is what our proposal before the Kentucky Public Service Commission would allow us to keep doing. Meet us in the middle.
John Crockett is the president of KU Energy and LG&E.
