How much is Alliant Energy's Decorah equipment worth?

If Decorah proceeds with an effort to create a municipal electric utility, it will be up to the Iowa Utilities Board to determine how much Alliant Energy should be paid by the City of Decorah to take over the existing utility facilities in Decorah.

As it stands now, there are two widely different estimates of that value.  The feasibility study presented Tuesday night by Decorah Power says Alliant's Decorah facilities would cost $14 million to replace with new facilities, but are older and depreciated and worth $5 million in their present condition.  The NewGen feasibility study's figures are on page 12 of Decorah Power's report, which can be found at https://decorahpower.org/

In a Facebook post earlier Tuesday, Alliant Energy says its Decorah facilities are worth $50 million: "An analysis of our system in Decorah by Concentric Energy Advisors puts our buyout cost at more than $50 million dollars. That dollar figure includes the cost to buy all of the existing wires, poles, transformers and substations, as well as the costs associated with separating our Decorah network from the Alliant Energy grid."  At this point, Alliant Energy has not supplied the figures which went in to the valuation by Concentric Energy Advisors of $50 million.

It would be the responsibility of the Iowa Utilities Board to sort through the competing claims and come up with the figure which it thinks would be an accurate and fair sale price.