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Pratt staff recommend studying a $20M generator replacement; commission gives consensus to pursue bond counsel
Summary
Staff presented options to replace the aging Unit 5 steam turbine with five 3-MW diesel units (total ~15 MW) and estimated project cost at about $20 million. Commissioners agreed to have bond counsel present financing options and requested detailed debt-service numbers before any commitment.
City electric staff outlined long-standing reliability and safety concerns with Unit 5, a 1964 14-MW steam turbine the city has been maintaining beyond expected life. The electric director said the unit has become unreliable, parts are increasingly expensive or unavailable, and safety, staffing and insurance costs are rising. He recommended replacing the unit with a set of five 3-megawatt diesel "Cat" units to achieve about 15 megawatts of generation and allow for staged installation.
Jamie Huber (electric staff) told the commission: "This total project, we're looking at $20,000,000." Staff described tradeoffs (diesels do not get gas-curtailed and have overnight parts availability) and said some units are available now but others would be delivered later. The city manager and staff recommended bringing bond counsel to the next meeting to present utility-revenue bond options; commissioners agreed by consensus to move forward with further study while requesting detailed debt-service and rate-impact numbers before any binding commitment.
No binding financing vote or letter of intent was approved at the meeting; staff said they expect bond counsel and a full cost analysis to appear in the next commission packet for formal consideration.
