Unalaska, AK – The Unalaska City Council will hold a work session tonight to discuss the prospect of ordering a third engine for the city's powerhouse.

Michael Hubbard, the city's consultant for energy issues, will be briefing the council on his assessment of how much power the city has to supply to meet the needs of local businesses in coming years.

"These engines have an 18- to 24-month lead time on them, and it's time to begin thinking about purchasing the third engine," City Manager Chris Hladick said.

In recent council meetings, Council Member and former Public Utilities Director Dick Peck has argued that the city is overestimating, or at least under-studying, what its future demand will be. He said that the city's two largest power customers, Horizon and American President Lines, are no longer expecting to use as much power in the coming years as they thought a few years ago.

But Hladick said that the city will have other big customers coming online, including the new Pacific Stevedoring cold storage facility, which he said is expected to required nearly a third of the electricity the powerhouse now generates.

The meeting will be at 6 p.m. at City Council chambers in City Hall.