A message from WFEC Board President
John E. Worthington
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As Californians face rolling blackouts and high energy prices, it's
reassuring to know that, as West Florida Electric Cooperative
member-owners, we don't have to worry about these kinds of problems. In
the first place, legislators in Florida, as well as Alabama, where
WFEC's power is generated, have had to wisdom to take a cautious
approach to deregulation.
Secondly, WFEC's power supplier, Alabama Electric Cooperative, or AEC,
is working to ensure the Co-op can meet the energy demands of
approximately 20,000 members, no matter how hard you run your air
conditioner this summer. AEC plans ahead how it will meet co-ops' load
requirements with generation from its own power plants or through
purchase agreements with other utilities, and also maintains reserves in
case generating plants have operational problems. Also a plus is an
all-requirements contract that guarantees AEC will sell its power only
to its member-systems, not to the highest bidder.
Additionally, with construction of a new power plant and plans for
another plant in 2004 or 2005, AEC is preparing to meet an increasing
demand for energy in the years to come. The completion of AEC's James A.
Vann, Jr., Plant at Gantt, Ala., will provide 500 additional megawatts
of reliable, low-cost power by the end of this year.
So far, the plant's construction is ahead of schedule and under budget -
the way I like to see a job done. The combustion turbines are in place,
the cooling tower is complete, the heat recovery steam generators were
completed and tested in March and the initial cleanup and landscaping
has started. The plant's substation also has been finished and
energized, allowing the project's engineers and AEC's employees to test
the plant's operations. Construction on the plant began in July 1999, so
you can see that much has been accomplished in a relatively short time.
Besides thinking ahead about meeting energy demands, AEC is building a
plant that will be as cost-efficient and environmentally-friendly as
possible. The Vann Plant will operate using a combined-cycle process of
natural gas and steam generation. Heat recovery features make
combined-cycle plants the most cost efficient forms of electric
generation currently available.
In all, AEC maintains eight power plants that generate nearly 1,200
megawatts to serve 21 distribution systems, including WFEC, in ten
northwest Florida counties and 39 Alabama counties. Founded in
Andalusia, Ala., in 1941, AEC is the nation's seventh oldest generation
and transmission cooperative. They've had some experience in generating
and transmitting power to co-op members like us, and we can count on
them for dependable, affordable electricity in the years to come.
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