Wind Turbine Scheduled for Construction this Week at West Central Schools

The West Central School Board learned that the Corporation will soon see an increase in utility rates as their electric supplier was recently approved for an increase with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission.

Superintendent Charles Mellon said that this increase has disrupted the initial plan for the utilization and cost of the wind turbine.

“We had set that up to be on a feed-in tariff where we were actually selling off the electricity for more than what it cost us to use. With the new rates, that kind of flip-flopped. The utility service put out a different rate schedule and now it’s more conducive to us to use the net metering process, which means we’re going to be using what we need to use as we produce it. If we produce more, it goes into a reserve bank and in those calm days in July and August, when we have little wind, then we will be able to borrow those back and use them. We would probably still be producing more than what we would need and those could be sold off.”

Construction of the wind turbine is expected this week.

“They have brought in the small crane and three semis brought in the large crane and the next step is to assemble that and they say that it will be completed by Friday. Once the equipment gets here and the weather cooperates, which it certainly has up to this point, it goes rather quickly when you’re just putting three or four columns together and then the task of putting the unit on top and attaching the propellers and so on. We’re ready for an exciting week.”

The component assembly should start today and the tower and base units should be built on Wednesday. The construction of the tower should be complete on Thursday and the turbine should be installed on the top of the tower on Friday. The large crane will be dismantled on Saturday. If you would like to watch the construction, you are asked to park in the high school parking lot and sit in the football stadium. You will have a great view and you will be in a safe area.