Idaho Power Seeks Approval for Four Wind Projects
By The Times-News, The Times-News, Twin Falls, Idaho,
Nov. 10–BOISE — State regulators will consider contracts between Idaho Power Co. and the developer of four wind projects scheduled to be built in south-central and eastern Idaho.
The Idaho Public Utilities Commission is taking public comment on the proposed contracts through Nov. 28. James Carkulis of the Montana-based Exergy Development Group serves as the developer of all four projects. If approved, the projects would start producing energy in November 2006, and be in full operation by May 2007.
Idaho Power and Exergy propose to enter into 20-year contracts in which the projects would be paid for delivering 10 average-megawatts a month to the utility. The projects include the Milner Dam Wind Park, located about a mile west of Milner Dam in Cassia County; Notch Butte Wind Park, between Twin Falls and Shoshone; and the Salmon Falls Wind Park, located near Hagerman and south of Bell Rapids. The first three projects each consist of 12, 1.5-megawatt turbines and Salmon Falls consists of 14, 1.5-megawatt turbines.
Idaho Power says the projects were sufficiently far enough along in development that they should be grandfathered from a commission order in August that temporarily reduced — from 10 average megawatts to 100 kilowatts — the size of projects that could qualify for a rate published by the commission for renewable projects under provisions of the federal Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act.
Passed by Congress in the late 1970s, the act encourages the development of renewable energy technologies as alternatives to burning fossil fuels or building new power plants. The federal act requires that electric utilities offer to buy power produced by small power producers who qualify. The published rate to be paid project developers is set by state commissions and is to be equal to the cost the electric utility avoids if it would have had to generate the power itself or buy it from another source.
Those wishing to submit comments must do so no later than Nov. 28. Comments can be submitted online via the commission’s homepage at http://www.puc.idaho.gov, by mail at P.O. Box 83720, Boise, ID 83720-0074, or by fax to (208) 334-3762.
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