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Hydropower Projects
How can we tell if Utah really needs power? Visit the website for Rocky Mountain Power’s parent company, PacifiCorp, and see what they say in public. PacfiCorp currently has a call out for more electricity in the form of a Request for Proposal or RFP. See: In this RFP PacifiCorp claims that they need up to 1,700 MW of new capacity (see the main document). Under present circumstances, with no clean peaking-generation pumped-storage generation resource, the entire 1,700MW is most likely to come from carbon based sources, adding to the air pollution and CO2 in the Utah area. There is no alternative for meeting Utah’s anticipated peak load requirement. While PacifiCorp claims to need 1,700 MW of additional electricity, how can we be sure this need is really in Utah? The RFP document states that any offers to supply power must be compared against two comparator plants, Lakeside and Currant Creek (See Attachments 7 & 8). Both Lakeside and Current Creek are natural gas fired power plants located in Utah, not far from Salt Lake City. For additional independent information about PacifiCorp’s need for additional electricity, visit the home of Merrimack Energy Group (www.merrimackenergy.com), who at the behest of our Public Utility Commission was hired by PacifiCorp to act as a “chaperone.” How can we be sure that Utah will not need to add more carbon based capacity to support pumping at night? Nighttime power is off-peak power. Off-peak power sells at about half the price of on-peak power. Why would PacifiCorp voluntarily sell nighttime power at half the price of on-peak power? Think of houses for sale on your street. What happens to the price of houses when a bunch of “For Sale” signs go up? At night there are a lot of “For Sale” signs for electricity in Utah and very few “I Want” signs. The Hook Canyon project would use this excess capacity. For additional information on PacifiCorp’s excess capacity see: www.merrimackenergy.com.
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