FAQ

EKPC is a generation and transmission utility, responsible for providing reliable wholesale electric power to 16 rural electric cooperatives that serve residential, commercial, and industrial customers across 89 Kentucky counties. EKPC is owned and governed by those 16 distribution cooperatives.

EKPC is one of the most coal-dependent and carbon-intensive utilities in the US. The co-op generates power by burning coal at the HL Spurlock Station in Maysville and at the much smaller John Sherman Cooper Station near Somerset. EKPC also owns and operates two natural gas plants in Clark and Oldham counties, a relatively small solar array in Clark County, and a smattering of small methane gas generation units located at landfills.

EKPC is regulated by the KY Public Service Commission, which is charged with protecting consumer interests by ensuring that investment decisions made by the utility are necessary and reasonable. However, the Big Hill Transmission Project is small enough that it does not require specific authorization from the KY PSC. Because the co-op receives significant federal funding, EKPC must also demonstrate to the US Rural Utility Service that its projects comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Endangered Species Act, and National Historic Preservation Act.

NEPA requires federal agencies to assess major projects to determine if there will be a significant environmental impact before taking action. In this case, EKPC must demonstrate to the Rural Utility Service (RUS) that it has fulfilled all NEPA requirements.

EKPC’s website asserts that the Big Hill Transmission Project qualifies for a “categorical exclusion” under NEPA, which means that it does not have to go through a site-specific

Environmental Assessment. The co-op is required to submit NEPA documentation, including describing the affected environment, anticipated environmental impacts, and any mitigation measures. EKPC expects to submit that to RUS by mid-2024.

At that point, the US Rural Utility Service could accept that EKPC’s project meets the criteria for categorical exclusion and will have minimal environmental impact. Or the agency could determine that the project will have a significant environmental impact and require a more rigorous site-specific environmental assessment of the project and alternatives to the project.

EKPC states this project is needed “to maintain reliable electric service for Blue Grass Energy members and alleviate system constraints.”

During public meetings held in October 2023, EKPC representatives elaborated on a number of different reasons they say this project is needed, including:

•  EKPC’s Hickory Plains substation, which currently serves about 5,000 customers in Southern Madison County, is near the limits of its technical capacity during times of extreme hot or cold weather, when power demand is high.
• If the amount of power demanded by customers through a given substation exceeds what the transformers at that station are designed to handle, the distribution system is at risk of failure with widespread power outages.
• There have also been times when voltage drops too low due to line losses along the long distribution lines that stretch from the current Hickory Plains substation to rural residents of Southern Madison County. In those cases, residents experience brown-outs.

Transmission lines are high-voltage power lines designed to carry electric currents over long distances from places where the power is generated towards eventual customers.

Before electricity can be safely and efficiently distributed to customers, it must go through a substation (or a series of substations) where high-voltage currents are stepped down to lower distribution voltages. Substations can also serve additional functions to regulate voltage on distribution lines.

It’s not yet clear.

We do know that EKPC’s proposed Big Hill Transmission Project will connect residents of Southern Madison County to the part of EKPC’s grid that is connected to the John Sherman Cooper Station. That plant is EKPC’s smallest, oldest, and dirtiest coal plant. And it’s a plant that many energy analysts and environmental advocates believe should be quickly retired as part of EKPC’s efforts to modernize and decarbonize its system.

Local residents and customers of Blue Grass Rural Electric Cooperative need more information about the implications of EKPC’s Big Hill Project on the operation of Cooper Station.

How does this transmission project affect retirement plans for Cooper Station? What are the implications for EKPC’s grid and customers served by Blue Grass RECC if Cooper Station is retired soon after completion of this project?

EKPC and utilities across the US are facing a time of rapid and disruptive changes to their business model and the ways that electric power has historically been generated, transmitted, distributed, and used.

While more information is needed, the Big Hill Transmission Project appears to be a case of applying old ways of thinking to solve the problem of an overloaded substation at the so-called “grid-edge.” That approach may no longer be what’s best for customers in terms of cost, reliability, flexibility, and environmental impacts.

EKPC’s old business model is being challenged and transformed by many forces, including:

• the urgent need to address the climate crisis by decarbonizing the electric grid within the next decade;
• falling costs of distributed renewable energy, especially solar;
• improvements in and declining costs of batteries and other energy storage technologies;
• the rapid uptake of electric vehicles (and the potential for the batteries in our trucks, busses and cars to provide power back to the electric grid during times of peak demand);
• continued improvements in the energy efficiency of lighting, appliances, and heating and cooling systems;
• the availability of powerful software and technologies that allow utilities to - with customers’ permission - manage periods of peak energy demand by momentarily switching off or turning down devices and systems in our homes and businesses and dispatching power directly from batteries located within our homes and vehicles.

Accelerating all of these changes is the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022, which authorized more than $400 billion for strategies to reduce climate pollution. Included within this massive bill is nearly $11 billion specifically for rural electric cooperatives to speed their transition to clean energy.

IRA also makes available substantial new rebates, tax credits, and direct payments to businesses, nonprofits, local governments, and individual residents who choose to invest in energy efficiency upgrades, renewable energy, battery storage, or EV vehicles. The law is also designed to give priority to and greater incentives for clean energy projects that directly benefit low-income communities and communities affected by the loss of jobs in fossil fuel industries.

*Red Lick and Big Hill are not experiencing rapid development. But, the Duncannon Lane expansion and North Berea are growing rapidly, particularly attracting the interest of large energy users. In Madison County, building permits for large commercial development are being granted without energy infrastructure to support them. What developments are slated to use the Hickory Plains substation?

This is important since EKPC has made the claim that this project is necessary to reduce the load on the Hickory Plains substation by 30%.

Though also stating that this project is for only residential benefit. Big Hill Line is discussed here at the Public Service Committee in October 2022 here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdzBZ09KhXU&t=2750s

(Can EKPC meet the energy needs of Southern Madison County residents without this transmission line and in ways that speed a transition to reliable, affordable, clean energy?)

Nothing is simple or easy, including the path EKPC is currently taking. But given the high degree of community concern about harmful ecological, economic, cultural and spiritual impacts of the Big Hill Transmission
Project, EKPC should rigorously evaluate alternatives to building this new transmission line.

Here are some of the elements of what an alternative could look like:

• Rather than building a new transmission line and new substation, EKPC should install a utility-scale battery - connected to existing distribution lines - at the proposed location of the new substation near Red Lick.

  This could provide multiple benefits to the grid and to Blue Grass RECC customers in southern Madison County.

  It would address the problems related to low-voltage moments along long, rural distribution lines. And it would reduce peak energy demand on the Hickory Plains substation during extreme weather by discharging stored power directly to the distribution system.

• In addition, EKPC should seize this moment (and federal funding available through IRA) to create a virtual power plant among Blue Grass RECC customers in southern Madison County. This is a relatively new idea that is already being deployed in other places, and it’s a strategy that EKPC’s management is well aware of.

  Rather than investing in a new transmission line that connects a substation to a centralized, fossilized power station, EKPC should invest in a network of energy and technology upgrades at the grid-edge, meaning upgrades made directly in people’s homes, carports, and garages.

  This could be done if EKPC and Blue Grass RECC partner to make what are known as inclusive utility investments to upgrade people’s insulation, appliances, hot-water heaters, HVAC systems, whole-home batteries, rooftop solar, and/or two-way chargers for EV vehicles. These technologies could then be networked together using a system of thermostats, switches, and software controlled by the utility. The overall
  costs of these investments could be significantly reduced (by as much as 60-70-80%) by leveraging resources available to cooperatives through the Inflation Reduction Act. Customers would have warmer (or cooler) homes and lower energy bills. And the demand for power from the Hickory Plains substation could be substantially reduced by the combination of more efficient homes and the ability for the utility to reduce customer demand or dispatch stored energy as needed to maintain grid reliability.

If enough people wanted to learn, we could make a difference.