MARSHALL — Members of the Marshall City Council have approved an update to part of the city wastewater plant’s main generator.

On Tuesday, the council heard a request for a new controller module for the generator, after the current controller was found to be obsolete.

“The main plant generator at the wastewater facility was put into service in 2003,” assistant wastewater facility superintendent Scott Przybilla told council members. “The generator provides emergency power in the case of power outages. It is also used by (Marshall Municipal Utilities) to shed load during peak energy demands, which helps keep electrical rates low in Marshall.”

Materials in the agenda packet for Tuesday’s council meeting explained that part of the generator — the controller — helps switch between generator and utility power at the wastewater plant.

Przybilla said the generator’s existing controller is over 21 years old, and is in need of replacement. Ziegler Power systems found the controller to be obsolete during routine maintenance and inspection, he said.

“They are recommending it be replaced, because parts are no longer available,” Przybilla said.

Agenda packet materials for the council meeting also said the controller had three separate failures in 2018, 2019 and 2020, although it was able to recover.

The cost of a new controller would be roughly $52,000. The city wastewater department had funding in its capital improvement plan to cover the cost, Przybilla said.

“Is that an equal switch for the generator?” council member Steven Meister asked about the replacement part.

“This part will go in there and work well. There’s other parts that would be available, but we’d have to replace more hardware, and the costs would go up,” Przybilla said. “This is a like-for-like.”