Power Plant Moving Forward

The city of Kimball power generation plant is projected to be up and running by June 2025, a proactive step taken by the Board of Public Works and the City Council.

Since April 2022, they have jointly met and discussed options, ultimately deciding to move forward with this plant to ensure that the city has backup power and is on standby for MEAN, the organization that Kimball has purchased electricity from since the 1980s ,.

Annette Brower, city administrator, shared details and background about the new power generation plant with the Observer.

Ironically, the city of Sidney has gone down the same path, replacing diesel engines with huge generators. Although Sidney’s generators are slightly bigger than Kimball’s, they were obtained from the same data center.

The discussion and decision to move forward with purchasing four used generators came when the old power plant was in need of major repairs and parts. Parts for the 1950s generators became obsolete and maintaining the old engines became cost prohibitive.

Finally, when boilers and radiators broke a decision needed to be made. Switch to a new power generator or do nothing. The council moved forward to secure electricity from generators. On April 18, 2023, the council voted to approved the power generation plant.

Recently, the city purchased four modern generators from a data center for $204,000 each. Each generator will produce 2 megawatts of power, for a total of 8 megawatts. Eight megawatts is the same amount that was produced by the six diesel engines for many years and powered Kimball. The six diesel engines were built between 1956 and 1976.

The finances are favorable for the city budget. The city will receive $2,000 a month per megawatt, a total of $16,000 per month, $192,000 a year for the generators to be on standby for MEAN.

MEAN needs these standby units due to blizzards, a Texas freeze, or summertime extreme temperatures. MEAN pays for standby and also pays for the actual generation when necessary.

In February 2021, the six diesel engines ran for two days from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. due to historic cold temperature and outages.

The city’s generators will be on standby for the city resident themselves. Should the electricity be off and the generators be needed to power the town, the electric crew must run the lines and confirm that they are clear, and then the generators will start up to power the city. The four generators are also a backup system for the city.

The city took out two separate bonds for the $5,000,000 project, each bond is $2.5 million for 10 years. The exact cost of the power generation is $4,968,837. The two bonds cover the complete project, including the generators, the construction of the building to house the generators. The $192,000 a year from MEAN will contribute significantly to repaying the two 10-year $2.5 million bonds, ensuring the project’s financial sustainability and stability.

No decision has been made on what to do with the six diesel engines or the Artificial Ice Plant building that houses them. According to the Kimball County History Book, the Village of Kimball acquired the Kimball Electric Light and Artificial Ice Plant in 1918 from a private company that was granted an Electric Light Franchise.