The Austin Utilities Board of Directors voted at a special session Friday morning to keep its northeast plant open for another year while staff researches longterm solutions to make the plant profitable.

Directors voted 3-2, with Board President Geoff Baker and Director Thomas Baudler dissenting, to keep the plant open for another year rather than close the plant or accept five-year or eight-year capacity agreements.

The decision won’t affect customer rates, according to Alex Bumgardner, power production generator for Austin Utilities. Closing the plant could affect employees, however.

The plant is essentially on standby throughout the year as Austin Utilities sells energy produced there on the market, and thus operates on days whenever buyers contact the utilities company.

The plant also had a contract with another energy organization until 2010, after which Austin Utilities assumed more costs and started to look closely at its options concerning the plant.

Utilities officials have previously discussed closing the plant, according to General Manager Mark Nibaur. Yet utilities directors are considering the option once again as the time limit to accept capacity agreements on the plant’s available megawatts in the next few weeks.

Directors tabled the issue at their public meeting Tuesday, as there wasn’t enough information on what closing the plant would cost versus keeping it open and running at a deficit.

According to utilities officials, keeping the plant open would entail a loss of $700,000 next year followed by decreasing losses for the next several years before the plant broke even under future agreements.

Closing the plant would take some time, but in a few years Austin Utilities could potentially save between $800,000 and $900,000 a year later on. The plant cost the utility about $4 million since 2010 to run.

Though the plant is not as efficient as others in the area, staff said the plant’s value as a local way to generate power is an advantage in case of emergency. Nibaur had recommended the board of directors go with an eight-year contract agreement, to obtain better cash flow and more opportunity to make the plant profitable.

The one-year contract will last until May 31, 2015. Directors say the decision to keep the agreement at one year will allow time for more research on the plant and may lead to solutions for the plant rather than shutting it down.