Utility Goes More Geothermal
By Steven Oberbeck, The Salt Lake Tribune
Dec. 9–Utah Power has signed a 20-year agreement to buy 42 megawatts of power from a geothermal plant near Cove Fort in Beaver County, but it could be two years or more before electricity begins flowing.
Amp Resources, a Utah-based energy firm founded in 2001, intends to construct the plant on the site of a smaller 5-megawatt geothermal facility acquired from the Utah Municipal Power Agency and Provo City in mid-2003.
“The Cove Fort property is one of four geothermal sites we’ve acquired over the last couple of years,” said Lyle Ball, vice president of marketing for Amp. “We are well on our way to getting permitting, the financing arranged and construction completed by December, 2007.”
UMPA, an organization of municipal power companies run by six Utah cities, operated its plant at Cove Fort from 1985 to June 2003. At one time, it tried to expand the facility, but an additional well that was drilled on the property was not productive.
“We realized that to expand the plant it was going to take a lot more money than we were willing to commit,” said UMPA general manager Leon Pexton. “And it was something that we could easily replace with a lower-cost [power generating] resource.”
UMPA found an eager buyer in Amp Resources, specifically founded to get into the business of owning and operating “clean energy or zero emission” power plants. Geothermal power plants bring underground water heated by magma to the surface, where it turns into steam that is used to run turbines to produce electricity. After the steam cools, the water is pumped back underground and the cycle is repeated.
The agreement to purchase the output of the Cove Fort plant is part of a long-term strategy by Oregon-based PacifiCorp, which does business as Utah Power, to increase the percentage of its electricity from renewable resources.
“Our long-term goal is for renewable resources to contribute 3 percent of the power we supply our customers by 2015,” Utah Power spokesman Dave Eskelsen said. “Renewable resources currently represents less than 1 percent.”
Utah Power is familiar with geothermal energy production. The Blundell geothermal plant, which Utah Power has owned since 1986, produces 23 megawatts of electricity. A megawatt is enough energy to power approximately 1,000 homes.
Amp Resources, however, has some hurdles to overcome.
Even in areas with hot springs, it often can be difficult for companies to know exactly where to drill new wells to take advantage of the superheated underground water table, said Peter Rose, an engineering professor affiliated with the University of Utah Energy and GeoSciences Institute.
“The technology and the ability to predict where geothermal wells should be drilled has improved a lot in recent years,” Rose said. “But it still can be challenging.”
Amp Resources, though, said it has an inside track. “Our Willowstick subsidiary has developed technology that is the best anywhere for sub-surface resource mapping,” Ball said.
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