Newsletter lets public follow power plant project's progress
Millard County Planning commissioners last week received the first of what will no doubt be numerous briefings on the Intermountain Power Agency’s long-planned transition from coal to natural gas and hydrogen power generation.
The massive construction project is scheduled to break ground in the middle of next year.
A mechanical engineer with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power walked commissioners through the project’s multitude of steps and schedules as well as some of the expected impacts to the area that officials hope to mitigate—housing and traffic being among the two most discussed.
Kevin Peng, LADWP’s generation project manager, led the discussion, showing planning commissioners a series of slides outlining the project and answering questions. Project Manager Lori Morrish was also present.
IPA went before planning commissioners because it is amending its original 1980s conditional use permit application in lieu of applying for a totally new permit. The current 1,800 megawatt coal power plant began commercial operations in 1986— 13 years after Utah and California utilities first imagined it. It is being replaced by a planned-840 megawatt natural gas and hydrogen-fired plant, which could eventually generate a total of up to 2,400 megawatts when other renewable energy sources are added in the future.
Project managers for the power project’s green evolution has already submitted three volumes of plans as part of the CUP amendment process since September. These include an assortment of required details, from storm water drainage and soil erosion mitigation to routine emergency and safety protocols.
Peng was asked by Planning Commissioner Joyce Barney during the meeting why IPA decided to forego a new permit.
“The approval chain was exactly the same,” he said. “So the intent is really to make our lives a little bit easier and the commissioners’ lives a little bit easier. We can go off of something that was known and then just highlight the areas that we change.”
While last week was the public’s first glimpse of many of the project’s broader details, a new newsletter called IPP Renewed Update will be available for people who would like to keep track of the power project—it’s called IPP Renewed, or simply the renewal project—as it progresses. It can be found online at ipautah.com/publications.
In its inaugural issue, IPA General Manager Dan Eldredge says IPP will be at the leading edge of a green energy revolution and Millard County will be in a position to reap the benefits.
“IPP Renewed holds potential for supporting the development of entirely new industries for Central Utah communities. We’ve created this new update publication to keep those communities informed every step of the way,” he is quoted saying.
Peng said during his presentation that Delta was uniquely situated to take advantage of existing infrastructure—rail line and highways, water and transmission lines, plentiful interconnections to a menu of renewable energy sources, such as wind in Milford, solar in Nevada, hydroelectric from Canada, and geothermal sources as yet untapped. All of it helping IPP’s vision to provide low-carbon, eventually no-carbon, electricity to its users, who include consumers in Los Angeles and five other Southern California cities.
Kern River Gas will connect the project to natural gas, a pipeline to the facility planned from the gas company’s Holden mainline. IPP plans to burn a mixture of natural gas and hydrogen, with the latter making up about 30 percent at first, but rising to 100 percent by 2045.
Peng said green hydrogen would be made from water through electrolysis powered by renewable sources and piped to the power plant from a nearby facility.
Salt caverns underneath the ground will most likely also be used to store hydrogen, Peng said.
“The energy storage capacity of the salt dome adjacent to IPP is larger than the total capacity of all of the batteries currently installed worldwide,” according to the IPP Renewed newsletter.
IPP also has reached an agreement with its business partners to extend their relationship for the next 50 years—raising significantly the prospect that industries wishing to get in on hydrogen power for themselves will view Delta as a place to be.
Still, more than a few details will slowly work themselves out before even a shovel of dirt is moved.
County Planner Adam Richins told the planning commission he thinks the county will want to host a few public meetings to take public comment before IPA’s application goes before them for approval. He agreed the planning commission should look to host another meeting next month with the applicant.
Planning commissioners had some questions Peng was not yet prepared to answer. For example, LADWP officials are just now issuing requests for proposal from construction contractors. It’s the contractor who will design and build the power plant. IPP hopes to have one contracted by December. Until then, a number of design specifications—including worker housing—are simply not known.
Also, it seems the matter of valuation remains elusive. Barney asked Peng if a reasonable dollar-figure could be attached to the finished project. He said he didn’t “have a good answer for that.”
Housing and traffic impacts are almost ensured with such a big undertaking. The construction project will employ 1,000 workers at its peak. Peng said project managers hope to keep many of them living on site as much as possible during the build. IPA is renovating some 200 RV spaces now to get them ready for the influx of workers.
Traffic will be heavy near the existing plant during construction. Peng said a new entrance is planned west of the current plant entrance to accommodate construction traffic into the facility. He added that he doesn’t think any road widening will be required, but does think new striping on existing roads may need to be completed, including a new turn lane along West Brush Wellman Road.
Questions about water use also came up. Peng said overall the new plant would use less water than is used during current plant operations.
According to the IPP newsletter, the amount of water used to make hydrogen is a fraction of what the current plant gobbles up in summer.
“The amount of water used for electrolysis to produce enough hydrogen for a full year of gas turbine operations at a 30 percent fuel blend is approximately equal to the amount of water consumed by the coal units at full load on only three hot summer days,” the newsletter adds.
Asked whether there were any plans to keep at least one coal unit operational just in case of emergency need, Peng said plans don’t call for it. The coal units, he said, would be decommissioned and the ground they currently sit atop brought back to grade.
Two shorter steel stacks will likely replace the tall smokestack seen for miles away currently. Barney said she was curious if the shorter stacks could mean more accumulation of emissions in the valley surrounding the plant. Peng said he didn’t think so because the new plant will so drastically cut emissions. He said he’d get back to her on the size of the new stacks.
Because of COVID travel restrictions in place in California, Peng and Morrish said they could probably only attend a meeting next month by video conference.
Planning commissioners will hold a public hearing April 7 to take public comment on the project.
