Laserfiche WebLink
Waste Management is experiencing the decreased life expectancy of replacement parts over their fleet of <br /> Caterpillar 3516 engines.Waste Management is recommending that the engines get new rings at 20,000 <br /> hours of operation,and new rings in addition to new main bearings at 40,000 hours of operation. The <br /> addition of the re-ring and bearing replacement will add an additional $23,000 to$26,000 per engine at <br /> the prescribed hours of operation. The re-ring is done at the same time as the top-end maintenance that <br /> includes;heads,valves,and gaskets. By adopting the new maintenance schedule the projected hours of <br /> operation will increase from 50,000 hours to 60,000 hours. <br /> Currently ERMU staff is evaluating historical and future projections of costs and revenue to determine <br /> next steps. There has been communication with Waste Management and Sherburne County about the <br /> drastically increasing costs,relatively flat revenue,and the viability of the facility. At this time ERMU <br /> staff is evaluating options to increase the viability of the landfill gas to electric plant. <br /> Staff is exploring the following options; <br /> 1. Construct a pipeline to bring natural gas to the facility to allow for a blending of natural gas and <br /> landfill gas. The theory is to increase the efficiency of the engines and reduce the maintenance <br /> cost by burning the cleaner less corrosive natural gas. <br /> 2. Install a scrubber to clean the gas for the existing plant and the additional engines if the plant is <br /> expanded in the future to utilize the existing excess landfill gas that is being flared at this point. <br /> 3. Research options for selling the electric production into the market. Currently ERMU is under <br /> contract to sell all production to GRE,but there is the potential to sell directly into the market. <br /> ERMU staff is exploring this option with other power providers to determine if this is viable <br /> option. <br /> 4. Continue to operate the plant with restrictions on maintenance costs. ERMU would set an annual <br /> level of additional costs over the contracted amounts and then prioritize maintenace to keep the <br /> plant producing as much energy as possible. This could have negative effects on the total <br /> production and would impact the revenue from decreased sales. The overall goal would be to <br /> maintain production levels to meet the required payments to Sherburne County for loan <br /> repayment and cover the costs of the maintenance contract with WM. <br /> 5. Evaluate existing maintenance contract with WM and loan repayment options with Sherburne <br /> County to look for ways to improve the viability of the plant operations. <br /> 6. Evaluate options for the sale of the plant. <br /> ACTIONS REQUESTED: <br /> No action is required at this time. ERMU staff will provide updates as information is gathered and <br /> different options are considered. <br /> ® Page2of2 IriiAIuIiE1 <br /> Reliable Public <br /> Power Provider P O W ERED T O S ERV E <br /> 217 <br />