Power plant consultants are not needed

Recently, Glendale Water & Power got approval from the City Council to hire four consultants to help in deciding how and what to do at our Grayson Power Plant (“Grayson consultation will cost city $470,000,” Dec. 26).

Our power supply manager indicated that some maintenance was being deferred until they could make any decisions after the report from the hired consultants.

In Glendale Water & Power’s strategic plans, they have indicated that one of their goals is to improve the plant’s heat rate below 10,000 BTU per kilowatt hour. To be spending any extra dollars to do so would be very wasteful, as the heat rate on any of the generators was not as low as they want even when they were brand new.

Where they should be investing our dollars is making Grayson more reliable and safer for the employees who work there, and for the public. There are several systems that should be upgraded and they don’t need to be hiring consultants to show them what to do. Glendale Water & Power has an engineering and operating staff that can do this.

If we do not want to find ourselves in the black during a major power outage, then it should be made very clear that day-to-day maintenance will continue to be done and upgrades will be added until we have the finances for any replacements — which means it looks like Grayson is going to have to run “as is” for at least the next 10 years.

Larry Moorehouse

Glendale

Editor’s note: Moorehouse is a retired superintendent from Grayson Power Plant.