Kaukauna hydro project relicensed

U.S. hydropower regulators have issued a new license to a Wisconsin municipality to continue operating and maintaining its hydroelectric generation project.

The City of Kaukauna, Wisconsin is located on the Lower Fox River. In 1939, the Federal Power Commission awarded the City an original license for the Kaukauna Hydroelectric Project. That license was replaced after its 1989 expiration with a new license issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. As licensed, the project consists of facilities including a dam and other structures, as well as two turbine-generators with a total installed capacity of 4.8 megawatts.

Because that license was set to expire in March 2019, in 2017 the City applied to the Commission for a new license for the project. No party opposed issuance of a new license. On March 29, 2019, the Commission issued the City a new license, authorizing continued operation of the project with some additional conditions required such as plans for items like managing operational compliance and debris and controlling invasive species of vegetation.

The licensing order also provides data on some of the project's costs and benefits. It notes that the project’s average annual generation is approximately 29,704 megawatt-hours. Including the cost of additional Commission staff measures imposed by the new license, the order states that the levelized annual cost of operating the project is $541,801, or about $18.24 per megawatt-hour. Multiplying the project's expected average annual energy generation by the alternative power cost of $42.04 per megawatt-hour, the order asserts that the total annual value of the project’s power is $1,248,756, in 2018 dollars, and that in the next year of project operation, it would save the City utility $706,955, or $23.80 per megawatt-hour compared to the likely alternative cost of power.