American Municipal
Power-Ohio, Inc.
AMP-OHIO

The plastics industry can be a heavy power user, and energy can be a substantial cost of production. Companies looking for lower power costs may want to investigate one of the 84 Ohio communities that operate their own electric utilities. Industries report cost savings of up to 35 percent.

"Because they are owned by local government, the municipal systems are not in it for the profit," explains Janine Moon, senior vice president of AMP-Ohio, the association representing municipal electric utilities. "They created the utility as a public service for the public good."

The "public good" means much more than providing electricity. It also means heavy involvement in community affairs -- like taking care of street and traffic lights, putting up the Christmas lights and hanging banners for special events.

It also means being a major force in economic development. For example, the public power system in the small city of Galion in north central Ohio helped save a declining industry. A company that made the back end of garbage trucks was being neglected by its larger parent. The municipality, with AMP-Ohio's help, found a buyer who has since turned the company around. In addition, an energy audit of the plant resulted in reducing the energy bill $15,000 a month. The company's management plowed the savings back into another plant next door that makes recycling bins for the garbage trucks.
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Ohio Art, which has been making toys in northwest Ohio since 1909, employs 220 and additional workers for seasonal peaks. The company reports "substantial savings" on its energy bill from the municipal power company.

In Piqua (see page 27), a start-up plastics firm was pleasantly surprised at the level of help the Piqua Municipal Electric Co. provided. "They changed transformers for us and upgraded the lines three times in a 14-month period, without any cost to us," says Ed Adams, president of Harmony Industries. "That kind of service is very important to a start-up operation."

Does small mean unreliable? Hardly. "We're just as reliable and our people are just as well trained as those at investor-owned utilities," says Moon. Companies such as Goodyear, Dannon Yogurt and General Tire are among companies that trust the reliability of the public power systems.

The municipally owned power systems are scattered throughout the state. Not all generate their own power; some buy all or part of their supply from AMP-Ohio at wholesale rates. At its dispatch center near Columbus, AMP-Ohio taps between two and three dozen suppliers, including the New York Power Authority, Louisville Gas & Electric and Cinergy. AMP-Ohio puts together a mix that provides energy at low cost and reliability. "We do a good job of keeping costs competitive," says Moon.

In addition to buying and selling in the wholesale power market, AMP-Ohio and 42 of its municipal members are building a 42-mw Belleville hydro plant and transmission line in Meigs County in Southeast Ohio. The plant, due to come on line in 1997, gives the municipalities another energy source in their mix. The Belleville plant joins the 213-mw, coal-fired Gorsuch plant, just south of Marietta in eastern Ohio. AMP-Ohio also negotiates long-term power contracts with suppliers to assure a future supply.

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Technicians monitor supply and electrical load at AMP-Ohio's 24-hour-a-day command center in Westerville. The center, which constantly evaluates power supply options available on the market, allows AMP-Ohio to buy power at the lowest rate and to control the load. Technicians update their forecast of demand every hour to make sure there is enough power scheduled. AMP-Ohio can also bring unmanned peaking generation units on line as necessary.
One of AMP-Ohio's many services to site seeking industry is a database of sites and buildings in the communities. Among its services to municipal utility customers is Questline, an information service that addresses manufacturers' questions. The service is free to commercial and industrial customers of municipal electric utilities that participate in AMP-Ohio's economic development subcommittee.

Paul Manley, V.P. of Manufacturing of Ohio Art in Bryan, finds the Questline service invaluable. "In the toy business you need to introduce new products every year," says Manley. "We're constantly looking at new concepts and trying to figure out how to make them work. Questline puts us in touch with people who can answer questions about different plastic materials, as well as methods of processing them."

Ohio Art makes Etch A Sketch, known the world over, and many other toys and games. Another division is a metal lithographer, producing such items as the printed metal sheets used for decorative tins and Kodak's 35 mm film cartridge.

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