Two of the five members of the Grand Haven Board of Light and Power (BLP) have shown a lack of understanding of basic power-industry concepts. Additionally, one of these two expressed a dislike for carrying out his duties as a board member. Both individuals are responsible for making energy-related decisions, and both will be on the ballot this upcoming election season. Andrea Hendrick is running to be mayor of Grand Haven, and Kurt Knoth, who was appointed by the current Grand Haven City Council as a replacement, is running for another term on the BLP. If you live in Grand Haven, will you vote for them?
During the December 15, 2022 BLP meeting, board member Andrea Hendrick revealed she was unfamiliar with units used to measure power when she asked, “Is a megawatt a standard unit of power? Do a lot of utilities use that metric?”
Later in the meeting, board members Hendrick and Kurt Knoth mistakenly believed that batteries GENERATE power. Knoth, not understanding the power demands of electric vehicles (EVs), asked General Manager David Walters, “Have you looked at all at vehicle-to-grid technology? There’s going to be thousands of EVs in this community in the next few years. Other communities have looked at fully electric school buses, for instance, which is perfect, a huge energy savings. Have you looked at that at all?”
Hendrick added, “When they (EVs) go online, even though it’s behind the meter, they are actually going to decrease the amount of power that we’re producing. So, when does our capacity (decrease)? At some point we’re going to get to a point where we don’t require the 36 kilowatts per year? Our capacity requirements start to go down.”
The discussion continued for a short while until a BLP employee explained, “When we’re talking about capacity, let’s say potential reduction from batteries, from EVs, what we’re seeing with grid analytics – keep in mind we never had this before – is EVs actually aren’t decreasing demand, they are exploding demand.”
“So,” the BLP employee continued, “a residential home might run somewhere from 5 to 8 kilowatts, and we’re seeing homes with EVs, they’re jumping from a peak of 8 kilowatts for a normal home to a peak of 16 kilowatts with one EV to 22 kilowatts with two EVs.”
Both BLP board members Hendrick and Knoth had mistakenly thought that, as consumers transition to electric vehicle usage, the demand for electric power would be reduced. But rechargable batteries need a source of power to recharge them.
The main function of batteries is to store power for use on demand. We find them in computers, watches, smoke detectors, and even in the cars we purchase. Batteries do not generate power but some can be recharged. Since batteries can store excess power, power generation facilities (wind, solar, coal) are often paired with batteries.
In gas-powered vehicles, the battery is recharged by a running engine, and the battery then is used to provide power to some of the electronic items within the vehicle. In electric vehicles, the batteries provide the entirety of power that makes the car run. When electric vehicle batteries run out of power, they must be recharged. The required electricity has to be provided by another source (wind, solar, coal), because the electric vehicle itself does not generate it.
In addition to not understanding basic power generation concepts, during the April 26, 2023 joint meeting between the BLP and the City of Grand Haven, Knoth shared what he thought of BLP meetings. “We always seem to have our boxing gloves on when it comes to the City of Grand Haven. It’s always us versus them. I hate it. I dread going to these meetings, I really do.”
Knoth continued, “Why I signed up to run again, sometimes I question my sanity. Some other questions: Why is the BLP the only city department that has its own PR firm? Why do we need our own lawyer?”
“The last thing that I’m actually going to suggest is a solution,” Knoth added. “We have crazy long meetings; 10:30 last time. 4.5-hour meetings are disrespectful to our BLP leadership team. They’re disrespectful to our board members, and they’re disrespectful to the public that has to sit there for 4.5 hours. So, the solution is, I just had a board meeting yesterday in Grand Rapids. We have a timed agenda. You get 20 minutes for update–done. You get 20 minutes for your update–done… and we’re out of there in hopefully a reasonable amount of time.”
At a subsequent meeting, a member of the public responded to Knoth’s timed agenda proposed solution suggesting he become better familar with Robert’s Rules of Order which are used to govern public meetings. When discussions drag on, any board member has the option to “Call to Question,” which forces a vote on the topic.
Points to consider when you vote in the upcoming election:
Hendrick and Knoth currently vote on power decisions that affect Grand Haven residents, without understanding the fundamentals of the industry.
Knoth is running as an incumbent for the BLP. Hendrick is currently running to be the Mayor of Grand Haven. The primary will narrow candidates on August 8, 2023, followed by the general election on November 7, 2023.
Do you think these candidates are qualified?