Update (03/09/20): The city received two proposals. One would construct a biomass power plant on the site. The other would locate a battery farm on available ground. Download the proposals: Biofuel power plant | Battery farm
City considers Blue Valley plant alternatives
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The city has issued a formal Request for Information for reuse of the Blue Valley power plant which is expected to cease operations in June 2020. Proposal are due March 6, 2020.
The city is looking for responses from private sector developers, investors and entrepreneurs for repurposing the site which first opened in 1958. (Map of the property right).
The city intends to maintain existing buildings around the power plant because they serve as an operations and control center for transmission and provide warehousing and support facilities.
The RFP follows an earlier repurposing report completed last November.
The 12-page report said Blue Valley is a brownfield because of closed coal ash ponds on which the city spent millions to meet environmental regulations.
Blue Valley currently houses three generating units. Two units - Blue Valley 1 and Blue Valley 2 - apparently out of service. Both are rated at 22 MW and went into operation in 1958. Blue Valley 3 is rated at 58 MW and began operating in 1964.
"More than 300 plants have been shut down nationally since 2010, with more to come, leaving behind sites that can be repurposed in numerous ways to support local and regional economic diversification," the report states.
The report explored different repurposing options including: abandonment, conversion to different energy production, decommissioning, dismantling, partial demolition, solar power, wind energy, industrial development, warehousing, agricultural use, educational/museum/recreation center, retail and housing.
The report outlines why several of these options would be impractical because of the site, environmental risks or other considerations or economically prohibitive.
The report recommended issuing the RFP and concluded:
"The City will need to carefully consider what, if any, economic incentives or financial participation it is willing to invest in a redevelopment project. Collaboration between the City and the development partner at the site is essential. Environmental risks must be identified and responsibility for mitigation clearly defined."
The prior decommissioning of the city-owned Missouri City Power Plant has been very controversial and not recommended for Blue Valley.
"The City, as stated earlier, lacks desire to dismantle the site for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the associated costs," the November report states. "The City currently has not, nor does it plan, to budget for the funds necessary to achieve this option."