PHOTO BY JOHN FRYMAN/ THE VILLAGE REPORTER
SYSTEM UPGRADE PROJECT … Bryan Board of Public Affairs board members from left: Debra Beevers, Jeremy Suffel and Brian Davis discuss a resolution to advertise for bids for the control system upgrade project at its meeting on Tuesday, February 3.
By: John Fryman
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
john@thevillagereporter.com
The Bryan Board of Public Affairs recognized a couple of Bryan Municipal Utilities employees for their recent mutual aid assistance during a winter storm in South Carolina. The recognition came at the board’s meeting on Tuesday, February 3.
Brandon Suffel and Noah Landel were among those who assisted with weather-related situations in Easley, South Carolina, from Friday, January 23 through Tuesday, January 27. They used a bucket truck and a digger truck from BMU.
“They had wanted us to stage there before the storm came in just to see what ice was going to happen and what mutual aid was being needed for them,” said Electric Distribution Supervisor Al Sullivan.
Sullivan said that Napoleon and Marshall, Michigan, also sent crews to South Carolina for mutual aid assistance.
“It wasn’t as bad as what they had predicted,” added Sullivan. “We did some work down there with Easley, and the guys did a good job. They didn’t have any more assignments after that, so they came home.”
A resolution authorizing Bryan Mayor Carrie Schlade to serve as delegate and board member Debra Beevers as alternate was approved. Both will represent the city as members of the board of directors of the Ohio Municipal Electric Association in 2026.
The board authorized Derek Schultz, director of utilities, to advertise bids pertaining to the GE#6 General Electric Control System upgrade project. Motion was carried by a 5-0 vote.
The GE#6 General Electric Gas Turbine is one of three natural gas/diesel simple cycle combustion turbines in the City of Bryan that generates electricity during emergencies, during periods of peak load demand, and during transmission line disturbances and/or maintenance.
It’s also the last of the three turbines that require an upgrade for a significantly more reliable control platform that uses better technology in troubleshooting mechanical and electrical equipment failures, reducing downtime, and increasing asset availability and reliability during these critical use periods.
“We are formally requesting that we go out for bid in order to bring up the controls of the General Electric gas turbine to the same level as the Westinghouse gas turbine so we can speed control it better and also allow it to be much more reliable for the future,” said Jim Coressel, Power Plant Superintendent.
“Hopefully by being able to control the speed more effectively we can get maybe even 500 kilowatts more out of it than what we currently do because everything is so warm. We can’t run it at full speed.”
Coressel added the controls date back to 1963 and replacing them will provide for better speed control and make the turbine run more efficiently.
Funding for the system upgrade has already been appropriated in the 2026 Electric Capital budget. The cost of the replacement is $650,000.
Coressel also gave a presentation reviewing the electric utility department for 2025. He reported on the capacity peak shaving which involved five coincident peak events from June 1 to September 30.
Last year, the capacity cost was $8.21 per kilowatt hour per month. This year the capacity cost goes up to $10.01 per kilowatt month.
In 2025, the power plant averaged 29,800 kilowatt-hours, a savings of $3,376,619. The Auglaize Hydro Plant averaged 2,800 kilowatt-hours, a savings of $323,226, and the Solar Field averaged 800 kilowatts, for a savings of $96,030.
“The solar field typically works a whole lot better during the capacity portion because it typically happens in the summer where transmission typically happens in the winter,” commented Coressel.
“The reason for that is AEP’s transmission coverage is pretty much straight down the middle of Ohio into Kentucky and to Danville, Virginia which is the bottom of AEP.”
Last year, the Auglaize plant generated 6.1 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy. In 2024, the amount was 6.5 million kWh. In 2023, the amount was 6.8 million kWh.
Coressel also pointed out that the Auglaize plant didn’t do as well last year in terms of rainfall, which was the lowest from August through September since 1939.
“We didn’t have any rain, and we don’t like to run the river dry, because that makes us really bad neighbors for the upstream people,” he said.
“One of the regulations that we have at the Auglaize is from April 15 to July 1 where we are required to have at least 691 feet of elevation and that’s for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources requirement for fish spawning upstream in the backwaters.
“After that we can run it down, but then we get dozens of calls from boats sitting in the mud, and they’re never happy when they call me.”
The city’s solar field saw a decrease, generating 2.4 million kWh in 2025, 2.5 million kWh in 2024, and 2.6 million kWh in 2023.
Renewable energy credit sales totaled $290,893 involving both the Auglaize Hydro Electric Plant and Solar Field.
Sullivan reviewed various electric-related projects throughout the city, including replacing a URD transformer on Mulberry and Lebanon Streets, a planned directional bore project at the Williams County Courthouse, installing a new conduit on Brunicardi Way, and electric conduit installation in the Autumn Chase Subdivision Expansion.