The Utilities Commission, along with your current City Commissioner’s, continue to quietly move toward installing an inadequately sized, expensive to operate, and rather dirty garbage burning facility on property near Sugar Mill and Venetian Bay. They spent your money for a trip to Montreal to observe one of these plants in operation, but we are told the plant they viewed was not in operation, and burned telephone poles not garbage. Regardless, this continues as a discussion hidden from view. We asked and received the following proposal from the President of Florida Rural Cities and Communities, a not-for-profit organization formed to provide affordable water and power to Florida communities. Its President sent us the following letter of the history of their proposal and an analysis as to why their proposal for a 100 megawatt gas turbine plant is adequately sized, cheaper to operate, and provides both for lower eclectic rates, potable water, and waste disposal.

It will cost about $350,000,000, they estimate, all of which will be provided through financing by FRCAC. A recent discovery of natural gas cements the need to build this facility. The Shadow thinks that the Utilities Commission and the City Commission are intent on not even looking at this proposal. By the way, did you notice that Florida Power & Light plans to convert two of its South Florida plants to natural gas and the pipeline goes through Volusia County? Regardless, this continues as a discussion hidden from view. By the way, did you notice that Florida Power & Light plans to convert two of its South Florida plants to natural gas and the pipeline goes through Volusia County? You, read the letter and decide. Read below: The Shadow thinks that the Utilities Commission and the City Commission is intent on not even looking at this proposal. You, read the letter and decide. Read below:

On Jan 5th 2005 our corporation “Florida Rural Cities and Communities” (FRCAC) responded to Request For Information from the U.C in reference to power for the City of New Smyrna Beach (NSB), FRCAC proposed a system to provide power and fresh water, not only for NSB but also for the cities of Edgewater, Oak Hill and the City of Port Orange. The interconnection piping is already in place between these cities to facilitate the project and demands for both water and power. NSB was in a position to assist its Sister Cities and make a profit on its investment. The Power generated would supply the total load for NSB and excess power would be sold to the Grid or neighboring cities. FRCAC also proposed a Plasma system as part of the project to eliminate hazardous waste.

Now comes the interesting part, the existing NSB electrical supply (provided by others) rate schedule for both Residential and Commercial includes a Demand Rate. The more energy you use, the Higher the Demand Rate. I researched this very carefully. The FRCAC proposed cost for power to NSB would be a Single rate per kilowatt hour consumed with a similar rate structure for water based on thousand gallons per day consumed. Rates would only increase per a mutually approved inflation index.

The FRCAC proposal to NSB is summarized as follows:

The NSB project was proposed to be located well inland on the site provided by NSB. The cogeneration project would serve to provide power, potable water and waste disposal for NSB at a negotiated contract price. The cogeneration facility will be developed and installed to meet NSB needs. NSB has the option to participate in funding and ownership of the project.

The project is expected to be installed as a Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) concept with Funding available should NSB choose not to participate in a partial ownership option.

NSB would have the first option to buy the facility under the BOOT structure.

The project is proposed to be owned and operated by FRCAC. FRCAC is a not-for-profit organization formed to provide affordable water and power to Florida communities. The Plasma Arc technology project will be incorporated into the power/desalinization project and will be provided power from the project. The Plasma Arc project is expected to consist of multiple pods for stability. The power/desalinization project will be provided hydrogen (H2) from the Plasma Arc project to use as fuel in the cogeneration project heat recovery steam generators (HRSG’s).

The project is expected to consist of a Gas Turbine combined power and desalinization cogeneration facility which will include four (4) new/un-used gas turbines and four (4) new/un-used Heat Recovery Steam Generators (HRSG), with dual fired duct burners (natural gas & hydrogen), and four (4) flash evaporation desalinization tranes. Multiple units are proposed to enhance stability and flexibility of operation. Exact sizing of the gas turbines, HRSG’s and flash evaporation desalinization tranes would be determined as detailed engineering progresses. Note: Flash evaporation desalinization units do not generate hazardous wastes.

The Gas Turbines are proposed to burn Natural Gas as the primary fuel, with #2 fuel oil as the secondary fuel, and Hydrogen from the adjacent Plasma Arc project as the tertiary fuel. The Natural Gas Supply will be cleaned, pressure and flow controlled and quantity metered prior to being supplied to the Gas Turbines and Duct Burners. Hydrogen gas will be metered prior to being supplied to the Duct Burners. The liquid fuel supply (#2 Fuel Oil) will serve as the secondary fuel source for the facility in the event of emergency conditions. The liquid fuel supply will be capable of 100% capacity of the facility. H2 from the Plasma Arc portion of the project and natural gas will be routed to the HRSG’s to supplement duct firing for production of steam. (More)LINK (more)

Each gas turbine will be equipped with a diesel driven starting device and an emergency generator will be installed to provide critical power to the facility systems in-order to insure the facility has “black start” capability. This capability will allow the facility to produce potable water and power during emergency conditions.

The facility will be capable of producing approximately 160,000+/- KW gross power along with ten (10) million gallons per day water production at projected site conditions. The power output from the gas turbines and steam turbine generator will be transformed from 13.8 KV to the required voltage on the interconnection transmission system. Power exported from the facility would be routed through parallel feeds with isolation breakers, a cross tie system and disconnect switches to insure redundancy to the city system.

Salt water will be provided, through a patented proprietary concept, to supply the flash evaporation desalinization tranes. This patented proprietary concept eliminates the necessity to install pipelines to and from the ocean for supply and return of salt water for the desalinization process. Multiple supply and return sources of salt water will be provided to insure project stability. The concentration factor for the brine is projected to be less than 20% eliminating generation of hazardous wastes. Distilled water from the desalinization tranes will be captured and transferred to Product Water Storage Tanks for processing.

Product water is pumped from the four (4) desal tranes to three (3) ten million gallon capacity each (10,000,000) Product Water Storage Tanks. Product water is then routed from the Product Water Storage Tanks to the Re-mineralization system. The re-mineralization will treat the product water with minerals to meet Florida Potable Water Standards and AWWA Standards, and the output from the Re-mineralization system will be routed to two (2) Potable Water Storage Tanks with a capacity of ten (10) million gallons each. Potable water will also be chlorinated to meet Florida Potable Water and AWWA Standards.

Potable water will be continuously circulated in the Potable Water Storage Tanks and will be continuously monitored and treated, prior to being pumped from the Potable Water Storage Tanks alternately to the Potable Water supply line serving the City of New Smyrna Beach. The Product Water Tanks will supply the input to the Demineralization System which will purify the water for supply to the Dematerialized Water Storage Tank which in turn will supply the four (4) Heat Recovery Steam Generators with make-up water.

This is a summary of the proposal submitted to NSB. FRCAC also sent a letter to Mr. Rodi on a later date, after learning the UC was ONLY interested in New Smyrna’s needs, which confirmed sizing of the facility, could be accomplished with NSB parameters. No response was ever received.

President

Florida Rural Cities and Communities

AN OP-ED LETTER FROM

CONGRESSWOMAN KOSMAS

The Shadow was astounded that a columnist of the Nsbnews attacked Congresswoman Kosmas as disingenuous. Putting aside the fact that he supported the more than tarnished ex Republican who lost despite the fact that he gerrymandered the district in his favor, the columnist is simply speculating that she has made some kind of tawdry deal. The Shadow does not think that such speculation is fair or is relevant to a reasonable debate.

The Shadow has received the following statement from Congessman Kosmas and has no opinion on its veracity or value to the ongoing debate.

Why We Need Fiscally Responsible Health Care Reform

By Congresswoman Suzanne Kosmas

Over the past several months, I have met with families, small business owners, doctors, and others across Central Florida to discuss health care. The concern I’ve heard most often is the fear that they will lose the ability to maintain or access quality health coverage due to skyrocketing health care costs.

In 2OO7, the U.S. spent 16.2% of GDP on health costs, nearly twice the average of other developed nations, and costs are projected to rise to 25% of GDP in 2O25. Small businesses have seen their premiums rise 129% over the last nine years. We are on an unsustainable path that is hurting job growth, overwhelming the federal budget, and creating debt for future generations.

While the health care reform bill before the U.S. House of Representatives has many positive elements, I believe that it does not do enough to slow the growth of health care costs or to rein in spending on care. That is why, after careful consideration and with great difficulty, I decided that I could not in good conscience support this bill.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the House health care bill will actually increase federal health care spending over the long term, while proposals being considered by the Senate would have a net decrease. Furthermore, the total cost of the House bill is nearly $1.2 trillion, significantly more than the President’s stated goal. Because it is our obligation to be fiscally responsible, I cannot support a plan that spends so much, but doesn’t significantly slow the growth in health care costs.

This vote was an extremely difficult decision for me. I have long been a champion for efforts to improve health care such as the expansion of health coverage for children of working families, protecting seniors from an increase in Medicare Part B premiums, and working to secure the funding for the new Orlando VA Medical Center to improve care for Central Florida’s veterans.

I believe fiscally responsible health care reform is attainable, but we must improve upon the House bill. We need reform that truly rewards quality outcomes and moves us away from the fee-for-service system that rewards quantity alone. We need reform that gives real incentives to maintain healthy lifestyles. We need reform that makes a serious effort to control waste, fraud, and abuse. And we need reform that leads to health insurance plans that are more cost-effective.

Though I voted against the House plan, the bill does have promising aspects. It begins to hold insurance companies accountable by preventing them from denying coverage based on preexisting conditions, by eliminating life-time caps on coverage, and by taking steps to lower premiums. The bill also establishes health insurance exchanges that will help provide additional options for many individuals and small businesses. However, in the long run, these reforms will be in vain if we don’t take significant steps to rein in rising costs.

It is important to note that this is an ongoing process. I will continue working with my colleagues and I am hopeful that a fiscally responsible health care reform bill will soon be passed that truly addresses growing costs and moves us towards affordable, accessible, and sustainable health care. But the House plan was not that bill.