K-T re-licensing effort at the midpoint

The stakeholders team at work toward an application to allow Duke Energy’s Keowee-Toxaway project to be re-licensed by the federal government has reached the halfway point of the process. And last night Duke representatives held a public meeting for the benefit of Oconee County, one of the stakeholders. It was attendedby several county officials. The meeting allowed Duke’s Jeff Lineberger and Jen Huff to highlight various components of what’ll go into the application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, with the hope that FERC approves a new license covering the next 30 to 50 years. Lineberger started the meeting by explaining that even with Duke’s merger with Progress Energy, the utility company still relies on its Oconee County reservoirs for one-seventh of power-generation. Much of the meeting touched on the importance of water to carry out the purposes of Bad Creek and lakes Keowee and Jocassee toward generation purposes at the nuclear and hydro stations—-as well as to fulfill Army Corps of Engineers customer commitments in the downstream Savannah River Basin. Lineberger said those commitments are stipulated in a 1968 agreement which his company is hopeful to re-negotiate during the re-licensing process.