Otter Creek hydropower project forges on

Author: Tim Miles

Another step has been made in Dr. Anders Holm's quest to bring green energy to the town of Middlebury. Holm, an otolaryngologist in Middlebury, has been designing a hydropower project in Otter Creek for the past few years. Finally, Holm has sent in a preliminary application in to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to build the project.

When he began the project, Holm hoped to use the remains of an old sluice that diverts part of the Otter Creek Falls to build a hydropower facility and sell the power locally to the town or college.

One major change since Holm began in the plan to produce hydropower is that Holm will not be selling power directly to the town or the College as he had originally planned. Now he will be selling power wholesale to the Central Vermont Public Service (CVPS), which then sells power to many communities across Southern and Central Vermont. "I'm just a wholesaler and sell to CVPS which sells in turn to customers. I will not be allowed to sell directly."

Formerly, Holm had thought he would sell the power directly to customers, but legal issues would have complicated the process to build the hydropower turbine. As Holm says, "Our plan to sell directly to the College succumbed to counter intuitive legal nonsense that would have required our small facility to become a utility to sell to the college which opened up another level of bureaucracy."

And there are still plenty of other legal issues for Holm to deal with. "The legal issues are the biggest problem, we have to deal with water rights, milling rights and property rights."

In addition to the legal issues, there are several more steps that need to be completed before this hydropower generator can be built. "Next we have to get a water quality certificate permit from Vermont, then we can get on the FERC fast track and hopefully get this up in 2010," said Holm.

Possibly the most time-consuming part of the process is ordering the actual turbine. "Once we order the turbine, it takes eighteen months to get, and this order time is getting longer." As demand for hydropower increases across the world, demand for turbines is increasing.

But the Green Mountain State is an ironic anomoly. Legal hurdles in Vermont are more cumbersome than in other states. According to Holm, "Unfortunately, Vermont is not in line, more activity of this nature is going on in places like New Hampshire and Maine and around the world."

Despite the fact that the College and the town will not be able to purchase electricity from Middlebury Electric, Holm's company for creating the hydropower generator, Holm is still hopeful that the College can help the project, although he understands that the collapse of several national banks and the resulting international economic troubles limit what the College is able to do. "Certainly the College could still purchase carbon offsets to reduce its carbon footprint, although it's difficult with the current state of the economy," said Holm.

The College agrees that the creation of a hydropower generator would definitely be a positive thing. According to Bob Huth, Executive Vice-President and Treasurer,

"The College supports green energy and desires to see something that's working there and to support the town in the process and hopefully reach a win-win situation for everyone." He admits that there are, however, limitations on what the College can do to help this process. "The College wants to help in ways a college can help, and needs to be aware of this economic environment."

One aspect of the economic difficulties of recent years in this country is helpful for this project, however. The increase in the price of traditional fuel sources is making hydropower a more attractive deal. "The higher other power sources' prices go, the better the deal. We can set a price for 20 years, and oil and coal companies can't do that."

As he takes this next step to complete his plans, Holm is hopeful that the intrinsic value of this hydropower project will involve a variety of people and groups to see its completion. "I hope that in the spirit of getting this thing done we can all work together."