News

Study: Facilitate wind, coal power development … Recent report calls for improved transmission infrastructure in Idaho, Rocky Mountain

Building new transmission lines would open more markets for wind energy and coal industries in Idaho and the Rocky Mountain states and help meet the West’s power needs, according to preliminary recommendations of a study group released this week.

The Times-News and
The Associated Press

http://www.magicvalley.com/news/localstate/index.asp?StoryID=11055

The plan includes the addition of a new 345 kilovolt high voltage transmission that the study says would enable the addition of significant new coal and wind generation resources in southern Idaho and Wyoming. Without the new transmission infrastructure, new electric generation resources would be bottlenecked by limitations in the existing transmission grid, the study says.

The line would begin near Rawlins, Wyo., extend west to the Jim Bridger coal power plant that is in partly owned by Idaho Power Co., then split and extend into Idaho and Wyoming.

Wind generators and coal power producers have been looking at areas in Idaho to build generation facilities.

Windland Inc., a wind energy company, has proposed constructing turbines along the ridge of Cotterel Mountain near Albion on public land managed by the BLM.

Sempra Energy Resources, a San Diego company, is studying whether a coal-fired plant is viable near the Snake River south of Glenns Ferry.

Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal and then-Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt created the Rocky Mountain Area Transmission Study in fall 2003.

The goal was to identify the most critical electricity projects needed in Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Utah and Wyoming, and examine the most economic and efficient ways to create more transmission lines to export power from and within the region.

"Without such critical investment in new electric transmission facilities, the region will be unable to tap lower-cost coal and new wind generation, and it will not be able to export these electric generation resources to other parts of the West where they are needed," Freudenthal said in a release.

The study is "heading in the right direction by starting the planning process now so that we might be prepared for the future," he said.

There have been few electric transmission facilities built in the region in the last decade, Freudenthal said.

He and current Utah Gov. Olene Walker attributed the reluctance by investors to the climate of uncertainty surrounding federal regulatory policy and lack of a meaningful national energy policy that addresses rapid changes in the electric power industry.

"The future of our region will be determined by water and energy supplies," Walker said. "The best solution is addressing the issue collectively."

It’s unclear how much the proposals would cost taxpayers.

Preliminary recommendations also include:

* The Wyoming-Colorado Lines Project, a new 345-kilovolt line from the Powder River Basin in northeastern Wyoming extending to a point northeast of Denver. It too would tap into wind and coal resources and supply power to the Front Range of Colorado.

* The Montana System Upgrade, reinforcing the existing 500-kilovolt system without building new transmission lines but by increasing the efficiency of existing lines at a relatively low cost.

* A longer-term proposal that would further increase electric transmission capacity in the Rockies and build two major transmission paths to West Coast markets.

Both governors said they look forward to reviewing the recommendations at the next meeting of affected parties, planned for September, and beginning formal actions to get the projects built.

The report is expected to be completed in late August.

Sorry, we couldn't find any posts. Please try a different search.

Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.