By Brenna Angel
Lexington, KY – Several western Kentucky cities and utility companies have signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to modernize and rehabilitate hydropower plants along the Cumberland River. Project manager Jay Sadler says the agreement implemented today allows municipalities to maintain service by helping pay for much-needed improvements.
"Our plants are experiencing unforced outages more and more often. And when our power is not available, they have to go to the open market and buy power from other sources. And typically speaking, the power they buy is several times the cost of what we can provide power by."
The modernization project involves a 20-year master plan. In Kentucky, local governments and utilities that buy power from the Corps of Engineers include the Madisonville Municipal Utilities, Paducah Power System and the city of Princeton, Kentucky.