MUNICIPAL ENERGY AGENCY OF NEBRASKA

MEAN

2022 INTEGRATED RESOURCE PLANNING PROCESS

Every five years, MEAN is required to prepare an Integrated Resource Plan.
MEAN is currently preparing its new 2022 Plan.

What is the Integrated Resource plan?

An “IRP” is an Integrated Resource Plan, which all Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) customers are required to submit every 5 years under the Energy Policy Act of 1992. 

The IRP must evaluate the full range of alternatives to provide adequate and reliable service to a customer’s electric consumers at the customer’s or member’s lowest system cost. Ideally, the planning process assesses new generating capacity, power purchases, energy conservation and efficiency, cogeneration and district heating and cooling applications and renewable energy resources. Robust public involvement should be a part of the process, as well, allowing the utility to share upcoming challenges with its consumers and to get their input on solutions that best address the community's diverse wishes and concerns. (WAPA)

MEAN’s 2022 Draft IRP

[download MEAN’s draft IRP here]

SDSG Comments

SDSG submitted formal comments on the draft Integrated Resource Plan prepared by the Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska, asking that they be considered as MEAN moves forward to develop its plan. SDSG believes that a pause, which would allow for some rewording of the draft, and the ample public participation which has been missing, would be the best way forward.

Read our full comments on MEAN’s draft IRP submitted during the public review period, including Studies Related to Grid Reliability - Appendix A and Studies Related to Energy Policy - Appendix B. 

Comments by others

SDSG’s public awareness campaign helped generate review, analysis and input from a wide variety of experts, partners, collaborators, friends, influencers, people concerned about the pace of transition to renewable energy. We’ve attached a sampling of these comments submitted by others below.

  • “The primary recommendation that we would like to make is to direct MEAN staff to start paying close attention to what is happening in the US coal industry and the implications for MEAN’s proposed heavy reliance on coal generation into the late 2030s.” Leslie Glustrom, Clean Energy Action (see Leslie’s full comments here). Leslie also shared with MEAN a portion of the 2021 Burnham Coal Resource Study and CEA’s 2013 Warning on Faulty Reporting of US Coal Reserves.

  • “Citizens of Gunnison County are demanding all energy sources be in a state of transition in the immediate future, away from coal and polluting energy sources towards cleaner more affordable energy and storage, with clear dates for achieving clean energy percentages.” Darcie Perkins, citizen of Almont (see Darcie’s full comments here)

  • “It is laudable that MEAN has established a goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2050: https://mean.nmppenergy.org/means-2050-carbon-neutral-vision. However, this goal is nothing more than an aspiration if this planning process does not display phased efforts for reaching that benchmark. KK DuVivier (see KK’s full comments here).

  • “Consider the benefits of locally sited generation and islandable systems as extreme weather increases.” Colorado Renewable Energy Society (“CRES”) (see CRES’s full comments here).

  • “As Gunnison's main consumer of electricity, [our Sustainability Action Committee] SAC is concerned with MEAN’s clearly lacking initiative in transitioning into renewable energy and the plan to continue increasing your reliance on coal well into 2030.” Western Colorado University (see full Western Colorado University comments here).

  • “MEAN clearly has plans to build new capacity to deal with a projected temporary power deficit in the 2024-29 period. MEAN is not being straightforward or transparent about what this new resource might be: MEAN’s Power Supply Committee has not released its recommendation yet.” Michael A. Bell, citizen of Crested Butte (see Michael’s full comments here).

  • “Carbon emissions on our planet personal affects me and my community with hot dry weather and CO fires devastating thousands of people and reducing air quality for us all!!!! Major heath issues are directly occurring. MEAN needs to start lowering carbon emissions now, not after 2038, including a series of clear interim goals and how they will be measured. MEAN has established a “carbon neutral” goal for 2050, which is a long time away. MEAN has inadequate interim goals for progress toward this objective, and it appears MEAN intends coal burning “business as usual” until 2038.” Nicole Blaser, citizen of Crested Butte (see Nicole’s full comments here).

  • “…I’m surprised to see that MEANS’ 2021 Resource Criteria Participant Survey placed Environmental Impact and Risk at the bottom of the 12 criteria used to decide the mix of fuels used to generate MEAN’s electricity.” Bob Goettge, citizen of Gunnison County (see Bob’s full comments here).

  • “First and foremost, the practice of allocating wind energy from all of MEAN’s energy resource mix to a few select communities (namely Aspen, Glenwood Springs and Gunnison) at the expense of all the other communities contracted to MEAN is an insult to the citizens of all these communities.” Rich Strömberg, Professor, Clark School of Environment and Sustainability, Western Colorado University, Research Faculty, Alaska Center for Energy and Power and Director, Equitable Solar Solutions™ at Coldharbour Institute (see Rich’s full comments here).

  • “In sum, without going into greater detail in the short time given for public response to the IRP, it shows MEAN to be moving into the future timidly and reluctantly at best, when the times seem to require creative leadership. We can understand without necessarily condoning the MEAN staff’s reluctance to move away from investments in fossil-fuel energy made in a more innocent era, but we cannot have expansion of the use of those resources in a time when we all know better.” George Sibley, resident of Gunnison (see George’s full comments here).

  • “It is time that MEAN gets serious about ratepayer sentiment by holding at least one public meeting per year in a MEAN supplied municipality in each of the four states serviced by MEAN.” Steven C. Schechter, city of Gunnison rate payer (see Steven’s full comments here).

  • In 2019, Colorado adopted House Bill 19-1261, the Climate Action Plan to Reduce Pollution, which included greenhouse gas pollution reduction targets of 26% by 2025, 50% by 2030, and 90% by 2050 from 2005 level…While our current regulatory requirements do not apply to the communities served by MEAN, due to the very small size of these communities, we would encourage MEAN to voluntarily achieve the same level of emissions reductions for power that is being imported into Colorado.” Will Toor, Executive Director, Colorado Energy Office (see Will’s full comments here).

Communities Served by MEAN

Recommendation to the Western Area Power Administration

In July, SDSG wrote a letter to the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA), recommending that they not approve MEAN’s 2022 IRP as submitted. The letter “implores (WAPA) to approach the drafted IRP with great care, as there was a tremendous lack of attention to public participation with which it was prepared.” It also “requests that MEAN’s IRP be rejected and returned for revision on the grounds of insufficient public participation and failure to promote the enhancement of the environment.” And, “we also request that WAPA holds its own public hearing on MEAN’s IRP.” Click here to read the entire letter.