This year, a $91 million debt is being retired by the community’s Holland Energy Park (HEP). The city of Holland and its residents are benefiting from an investment in clean energy. There are plans on the table to pay an additional $40 million over the next two years. This will completely retire the debt in a total of nine years which was issued in 2014.
The finance for the $240 million power generation facility was through the $160 million of debt and $80 million of reserves. Initially, the Holland Board of Public Works had plans to service the bonds for 25 years. As the county will be retiring the debts early, millions of dollars in interest will be saved. The reduction in costs resulted in a 10% decrease for Holland’s BPW electric customers.
HEP is a combined-cycle power plant that produces electricity with the help of natural gas. Since it came online in 2017, the plant has strengthened the community-owned electric utility. HEP provides electricity to Holland BPW more than it needs. This allows excess capacity to be sold to other providers in Michigan.
In 2018, Holland BPW was able to reduce electric rates by 6% for customers on average. The Holland BPW electric customers will receive a new rate reduction which will be the second time in the past three years. Also, the wholesale revenue made available by Holland Energy Park has allowed the Holland BPW.
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