Arthur Calavritinos: Okay, got it.
Brent Bilsland: We’ll wait for those rules. We’ll evaluate that. I think what we’re trying to point out to everybody is to some people this acquisition appears as if a coal company bought a coal fired power plant. And what we’re trying to say is that’s true today, but in the future, this really is a transition platform, right. I mean, what solar developers and battery developers are dying for is a place to plug into the grid. The MISO Q study has been backed up four years. PJM Q study is so far backed up, they’ve stopped accepting applications. We don’t have to do a Q study. We already own the interconnect. We already have rights to that interconnect today. So if our management team and board decides that the best use is to close our power plant at some point in the future and repower that with solar and battery, we have very minimal work that we would have to do with MISO to get approval to do that versus the developer down the street, who’s trying to jump on the grid somewhere.
I mean, they’ve got to apply €“ in PJM, they won’t even accept the application. In MISO, they’ll accept the application, but they might be four years if your application happens to be on the edge of MISO’s grid near another ISO, both ISOs have to approve that application. So that’s I mean one of the things that’s causing a problem with this transition from fossil to renewables is there’s not enough places to plug in, right? And we’re turning off generation that has an on switch. We’re turning off generation that can run 75% of the hours in a given year. And we’re replacing it with generation that cannot be turned on from a grid operators for standpoint and it’s only going to run 20 hours, 20% of the hours in a given year. And so that’s the challenges that the grid is seeing today.
You know, I spent some time last week with a couple different grid operators who basically outlined, hey, look, we €“ the number of levers we have to totally keep the system in balance is being reduced, which then leaves them as demand response is the new lever they’re looking to reach for. Well, demand response is we’re shutting power off to someone, right? That’s what demand response is, who is getting their power shut off. And hopefully they’ve agreed to that ahead of time. That’s not always the case. So for all those reasons
Arthur Calavritinos: Yes, go ahead.
Brent Bilsland: Yes. So for all those reasons, the value of a plant such as Merom that has been well invested in. It has all this environmental compliance investment in place except for ELGs. We will have to invest in ELGs to run beyond 2025. And we look to make those investments in that 2023, 2024, 2025 period to be in position to do that. That is our thinking today. We’ve not pulled the trigger on that yet, but that’s what we’re evaluating in real time. But we think this asset becomes more valuable because of the attributes it can provide to the grid. And because there are fewer and fewer generators that have these attributes that are available to the grid. The motivation of a public utility is very different than a wholesale power generator, which is what Hallador Power €“ our subsidiary, Hallador power that owns Merom. That’s essentially what it is. So, for those reasons, that’s what we look like and this is what our thinking is.
