New Coal Plant is Floated for Wyoming
By Beth Potter, The Denver Post
Nov. 4–A Denver-based company wants to build a $1 billion coal- fired power plant in Wyoming to serve Colorado’s power-hungry customers by 2010.
North American wants to build the plant near three coal mines in the Powder River Basin near Douglas, Wyo., said Michael Ruffatto, company president. The company also would build a $180 million high-voltage power line to transport electricity to Colorado.
“Where gas prices are today, coal offers the best way of keeping costs low going forward and to do that in an environmentally responsible way,” Ruffatto said.
North American Power Group’s coal plant is one of close to 90 bids Xcel Energy is considering to meet projected power demands through 2015, said Mark Stutz, an Xcel spokesman. Xcel does not comment on the bids until it decides which ones to accept, Stutz said. The process is expected to wrap up in December.
Since coal-fired plants are generally seen as more sooty and less desirable than natural-gas and other energy plants, a plan to build a new one in a low-density area makes sense, said Frank Barnes, head of a new master’s- degree program in utility engineering and management at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
“Nobody wants a power plant next to them. It’s a major problem,” Barnes said. “I can’t tell you which is the cheaper way to do things, but you can imagine if we tried to double the size of the power plant on the Platte River near Commerce City versus bringing in a transmission line.”
Xcel is soliciting 2,500 new megawatts of power to meet customers’ peak demand for electricity, which has risen by 60 percent in the last 10 years, Stutz said. One megawatt of power serves 1,000 customers on a moderate 65-degree day.
“We do have to build our church for Easter Sunday, so we have to meet our highest demand on the system,” Stutz said.
About 750 megawatts will come from alternative energy sources like solar or wind, Stutz said. Another 320 megawatts will come from persuading customers to conserve energy, lessening the need for new power plants.
On top of the 2,500 new megawatts, Xcel also will build and run a new coal-fired 750-megawatt addition to the existing Comanche Power Plant it owns in Pueblo, Stutz said.
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