The west end of the UW-Madison campus will host a 150-megawatt power plant, the State Public Service Commission unanimously decided Thursday.
Construction for the plant will begin in October and is expected to end within the 2005-'07 biennium.
UW-Madison will share the West Campus Cogeneration Facility with Madison Gas & Electric Co., which is currently in need of electricity.
\The university needs cooling and heating and a power plant puts out a lot of steam,"" Linda Barth, spokesperson for the PSC said. ""So [the city and university] combined their needs to meet increasing energy demands.""
Though the state will subsidize approximately $90 million of the $180 million project, tuition is likely to increase between 2005-'07 to cover the university's part of the cost, according to Joel Giffin, a former member of the neighborhood group Friends of Responsible Energy.
Giffin said the plant would cause less financial stress had UW-Madison and MG&E not united.
""A power plant that would say, be 45 megawatt as opposed to 150, would be much more fiscally and environmentally responsible,"" he said. ""That would cause less burden on the state, the students and the university.""
Additionally, Giffin said future tuition increases would be smaller or non-existent had the PSC decision included a smaller plant.
The Regent Neighborhood Association, which consists of residents nearest to the new plant, now features a committee consisting of residents, university representatives and a FORE member to deal with power plant complaints.
Though association members acknowledged the necessity for a plant, president of the Regent Neighborhood Association Joy Drummond said many object to its size. She said its year-long planning has strained community members, who have diverse opinions about the plant.
""This has been a very difficult process for the neighborhood to go through when we have people that feel very strongly that it should not be built at all,"" she said.
According to Barth, the PSC also lowered investor return rates Thursday from 12.9 percent to 12.1 percent to aid taxpayers.
""We think its a very reasonable rate of return that also watches out for rate payers,"" she said.
