AVEC Kohler Speaks with City of Bethel

City Council meets with AVEC President Kohler

3-25-10

by Greg Lincoln

A special meeting was called on Wednesday, March 17, 2010 by the City Council to meet with Meera Kohler, President and
CEO of the Alaska Village Electric Cooperative, or AVEC, to discuss the
purchase of Bethel Utilities Corporation, or BUC – as stated in the
posted agenda. However, Mayor Joseph Klejka clarified that the purpose of the
meeting is not for purchase of the utility, but to talk to Kohler and
AVEC who have a lot of experience with utilities and to get some
background on what is possible for the future.
“It is an extremely complicated matter to interface wind turbines with diesel generation systems. When we do it we actually put in a whole brand new control system, and your diesels have to have the sensitivity to respond…wind is a highly fluctuating energy source,” Kohler said. “Anybody that attempts to put in a large wind power system -
first of all - you have to have an agreement with the purchasing
utility to sell the power to them and they have to know that they are
going to be able to absorb that wind and be able to respond to that
system.”

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