Jamestown Board of Public Utilities officials are looking into purchasing a lightly used power generator.

On Monday, the BPU board discussed the possibility of purchasing a lightly used LM6000. In October, David Leathers, BPU general manager, discussed the potential maintenance overhaul for the BPU’s current LM6000 natural gas turbine. The LM6000 is the main power generator for the city-owned utility. Leathers said every 2,500 hours of operation, which is about every five years, the LM6000 needs a maintenance overhaul. He said the overhaul costs around $4 million to perform. Last month, Leathers also said there was a second option to overhauling the current gas turbine. He said BPU officials have discussed purchasing a new engine instead of overhauling the old one. He said a new engine would cost around $13 million.

However, now there seems to be a third option. BPU officials have been notified that an undisclosed party is willing to sell a lightly used LM6000 for $6 million. The BPU board passed a resolution to go into negotiations with the undisclosed party for the gas turbine that would be more efficient than the current model.

The lightly used LM6000 has only 87 hours on it and uses a dry low-emissions technology for pollution control and improved emissions. It would cost the BPU around $1.5 million to install the new engine with control system changes and costs of engineering. That is also the same amount BPU officials expect to get by selling its current LM6000 gas turbine engine.

It is expected the new LM6000 would improve fuel efficiency by 4 percent and lower mono-nitrogen oxides by 40 percent. It would also cost $375,000 less annually to operate the lightly used engine. A new LM6000 would also eliminate emissions related constraints. The current gas turbine engine is capped at running for only around eight months during the year. The estimated payback for the new turbine from cost savings will be less than six years. The BPU has been using its current turbine for 14 years.