Pennyrile Electric, in Hopkinsville, hosted the 11th Kentucky Lineman’s Rodeo at the Western Kentucky Fairgrounds July 30 and 31.

The Kentucky Lineman’s Rodeo is a yearly competition organized by the Kentucky Association of Electric Cooperatives and showcases the amazing talents of electric cooperative lineman. This year’s rodeo saw 21 of Kentucky’s 26 electric cooperatives’ linemen compete for the coveted titles of top Apprentice, Journeyman, and Lineman team. The competition includes several work-related events: hurt-man, pole top rescue, and skill climb. All events are mainly judged on safety procedures since the rodeo’s main focus is doing line work in the safest possible manner.

Besides the 100+ competing lineman, the rodeo also had 50 judges and 37 volunteers. Family members and co-workers also come out in large numbers to support their various cooperative team members. Sponsors are also important to the success of the rodeo and there were 32 sponsors at varying levels providing support.

The rodeo, which began in 2005, started as part of a state effort to make lineworker safety a top priority for electric co-op utility employees in Kentucky. While the event is a competition, the rodeo tests line workers’ skills and safety practices—scoring rewards safety over speed.

Find out top results and see a video about the 2015 Kentucky Lineman’s Rodeo.

Farmers RECC and its power supplier, Winchester-based East Kentucky Power Cooperative (EKPC), today announced updates on their project to develop a plant in Glasgow that will produce clean, renewable energy. Called the Glasgow Landfill-Gas-To-Energy (LFGTE) project, the plant will produce renewable power using methane collected from the Glasgow Regional Landfill. The plant will be owned and operated by EKPC, the power supplier that is owned by Farmers RECC and 15 other rural electric Kentucky co-ops.

On April 2, 2015, the Kentucky Public Service Commission approved the construction of the landfill generator. This allows EKPC to begin construction of the facilities to generate electricity from the captured landfill gas. “We are extremely excited to be part of this and appreciative to East Kentucky Power Cooperative and the City of Glasgow for helping make this a reality,” said Farmers RECC President and CEO Bill Prather. “This project has been made possible as a result of the City, Farmers, and East Kentucky Power working together for the benefit of the community.”

The project began as a result of extensive discussion between Farmers RECC and the city of Glasgow. Farmers RECC was interested in the production of energy from renewable sources and the city of Glasgow was interested in capturing the methane gas produced at the landfill. In addition, the LFGTE project will provide a backup source of power to the Glasgow Water Company’s waste water treatment plant, saving them from having to make a considerable investment to provide their own backup power source.

“The longer term impact will be the ‘alternative’ energy that will be generated at the projects’ completion,” said Glasgow Mayor Dick Doty. “The City of Glasgow is very excited to be partners with East Kentucky Power and Farmers Rural Electric Co-op for the exciting opportunity to positively impact the environment and the citizens of Glasgow and Barren County.”

EKPC President and CEO Anthony “Tony” Campbell said the Glasgow plant fits with the cooperative’s Strategic Plan to continue to pursue prudent diversity in its generation fleet. “We were the first utility in Kentucky to build renewable power plants, and this project shows our continued commitment to affordable, reliable alternatives that work,” he said.

The plant will produce approximately 1 megawatt, which is enough electricity to power about 550 Kentucky homes and is expected to begin producing electricity later this year. East Kentucky Power will own, operate and maintain the plant, while Farmers will design, construct, operate and maintain facilities that interconnect electrically to the plant. EKPC will purchase the methane gas from the City to power the generator and Farmers will purchase all of the renewable energy produced by the facility. “It’s no secret that the demand for energy in Kentucky and around the world continues to rise,” Prather said. “We’re doing our part to responsibly meet this projected demand by working with the City of Glasgow and East Kentucky Power to develop this renewable resource.”

EKPC owns and operates five other Kentucky landfill gas plants located in Laurel, Greenup, Hardin, Pendleton and Boone counties. These plants annually generate enough electricity to power more than about 8,000 Kentucky homes each year. The environmental benefits of biomass projects equal taking 130,000 cars off Kentucky’s roads each year.

For the past year, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been working on new rules to regulate the carbon dioxide emissions of power plants as pollutants under the Clean Air Act.

The agency expected to finalize its highly controversial carbon dioxide standards for new units on January 8, and for existing units on June 1.
EPA will postpone these rules until sometime “mid-summer,” Janet McCabe, acting assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, said in a conference call with reporters.

The agency did not provide a specific date for the final rules.

NRECA CEO Jo Ann Emerson said EPA should use the extra time to study the 1.2 million comments that flooded the agency from advocates for electric cooperatives concerned about the proposals’ impact on affordable, reliable electricity.

During many Kentucky electric cooperative annual meetings this past summer tables were set up where cooperative members could sign cards provided by Action.coop to send to the EPA urging them to keep affordability in mind when proposing new regulations that will affect electric co-op power bills. Co-ops also made the cards available at co-op offices and during member appreciation days as well as putting the message on T-shirts.

As of December 2014, Kentucky co-ops had sent almost 16,300 cards to the EPA helping to raise the overall number of cards sent from co-ops across the nation to the 1.2 million.
A recent study, entitled Energy Market Impacts of Recent Federal Regulations on the Electric Power Sector, was released by Energy Ventures Analysis, a Virginia-based firm that has provided market analyses of the energy industry since 1981.

The study looked at the impacts of the proposed regulations on individual states. In Kentucky, the average residential electric utility bill is projected to increase by $450 a year if the proposed regulations go into effect.

EPA’s Janet McCabe also said the proposed rules targeting emissions from coal-based power plants attracted more than 4 million public comments.

EPA is also preparing a federal “model” plan to comply with the regulations although the agency has a “strong preference” for states to draft and submit their own implementation plans to meet the new emissions limits, McCabe said.

Information gathered from ECT.coop and Jackson Energy