Commission presses for options after long outage of LPT unit; repair estimate $583,000

Commissioners spent a substantial portion of the meeting examining a multi-month outage of a leaseable prime mover turbine (LPT) and the utility’s efforts to return generation capacity to service.

Jeremy, an operations staff member, said the LPT has been out of service since September and reported a staff estimate of about $583,000 to repair the unit if warranty coverage does not apply. Jeremy said the commission had expected GE to broker a lease of a temporary LPT so the utility could continue running capacity while its unit was repaired, but staff have encountered weeks of radio silence from GE and have not received the brokered-leasing proposal.

"It's been out since September," Jeremy said, summarizing the operational difficulty and the lost months during which a swap could have been made. Staff and commissioners discussed alternative vendors and vendors named in conversation included Pro Source and other repair vendors; staff said they will pursue other options rather than rely solely on GE.

Why it matters: Commissioners expressed concern the longer the unit stays offline the greater the risk of losing accredited megawatts in the MISO market and suffering capacity/auction impacts. One commissioner noted the tradeoff between a higher short-term cost to ship or lease a replacement versus the larger cost of prolonged lost capacity.

Commission direction: Staff reported they are continuing to press GE, are exploring other vendors and leasing options, and will return to the board with options and cost estimates. No formal motion or contract award on the LPT was made during the meeting.

Quotation and context: Jeremy provided the specific repair estimate and timeline concerns; commissioners repeatedly urged staff to pursue alternatives if GE did not provide a timely solution.

Next steps: Staff said they will report back to the commission with vendor proposals and updated timelines so the utility can decide whether to ship the unit for repair or secure a lease replacement.