Walje speaks on RMP and coal fired plants

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Richard Walje, president of Rocky Mountain Power, said he has been visiting local communities since 2003. He feels it’s important to keep people informed. This visit was to Castle Country where he spoke at the Tuscan to all interested parties. He met with the press prior to the main event. Rocky Mountain Power serves one million customers. They serve 90 percent of all Utahns. He explained what’s going on with the RMP fleet. He touched on the EPA regulations that are now under review with a formal decision coming in June 2015. Walje said he started as a lineman and helped with the installation of lines in Salina, Spanish Fork and Huntington canyons. He even spent time living in a trailer in Ferron. He had two uncles work in the mines. His maternal grandparents are buried in Green River. The Carbon Plant just celebrated its 60th anniversary. This plant has not been brought into environmental compliance and will be decommissioned in 2015.
Walje said they tried but were unable to bring it up to environmental standards. They could meet the standards for mercury, but not for toxic acids. They tried many different ways but couldn’t find a way, there’s not much room in that canyon and the plant is approaching the end of its useful life. “At some point it’s too expensive. It’s the end of an era. We’ve been planning for three to four years and some of the employees will transfer to Huntington and Hunter. Some have taken early retirements. There will be a skeleton crew operating there during the decommission process for the plant.” The land the plant is located on will be reclaimed and the components of the plant will be disposed of properly as well as sold to get as much value out of them as possible.
Rocky Mountain Power is noted for its community service and Walje said even with the closure of the Carbon Plant they will still support communities.
Walje said it is the intent of Rocky Mountain Power to operate the coal fired power plants for as long as they can. More restrictions are being placed on CO2 emissions by the Environmental Protection Agency. New technologies are unproven and very expensive, coal gasification and C02 recapture and sequestration technologies will increase the capital investment of a plant by 50 percent. Natural gas plants are a better alternative at this time with natural gas at historic lows. Walje said the demand for power has been decreasing since the recession. Rocky Mountain Power has no need for a new generating plant to come on line before 2026. The current fleet is handling the demand for power.
Dave Eskelsen, media representative for Rocky Mountain Power said the company has been very active in commenting to the EPA on proposed rules. The final rule will be out in June 2015 after all comments have been reviewed. The states will have one-three years to come into compliance after the final rules are announced. Walje said Rocky Mountain Power’s basic premise is coal, it is the least expensive fuel. They will work to comply with regulations while running their coal fired plants to the end of their economic life. Sixty-five years is considered to be the economic life of a coal fired plant. Hopefully they will operate into 2030-2040 but those aren’t hard dates. Regulations are based on how much C02 is released per megawatt hour. The EPA says they’ve assessed all the power plants in Utah. Rocky Mountain Power contends that there are mismeasurements and they have told EPA they made a mistake. There will definitely be lawsuits. One thing Rocky Mountain Power doesn’t challenge is climate change.
Rocky Mountain Power is investing in wind and solar power.
Many people have approached the EPA to voice their concerns with the impacts these rules and regulations will have on small rural counties. EPA is less concerned with that than they are the world view of fossil fuel use. “The prevailing approach right now is that EPA is looking at the bigger picture,” said Walje.
“After the new rules and regulations go into effect, each state will prepare a compliance plan,” said Eskelsen.
Cindy Crane is the vice president of Interwest Mining. She said they have been involved in a labor dispute with the United Mine Workers. It’s been going on since Nov. 5, 2012 so for 23 months now. They currently do not have a resolution and will continue to work on that. They are considering all options. Options included: selling, closure or contracting out. “We are looking at all situations, but there are no solutions yet. The company owns the mine, what’s the best option is being guided by what’s in the best interest of the customers,” said Crane.
Darrell Cunningham is the plant manager for Huntington Plant. He said they are currently involved in an overhaul. There are 250 contractors on site and at the peak there will be 400-450. The shut down began on Sept. 27 and will go for 35 days. “The extra people in the community bring in an economic punch. The people trickle in and then peak out. We look forward to a safe and viable overhaul of our unit. They are going through the scrubbers and will clean and fix any problems. Our plants run very efficiently,” said Cunningham. He said the water situation with Huntington Creek since the Seeley fire is much better this year than last year. The debris basin is in service now up Huntington Canyon and that has helped catch a lot of the big logs. They still get a lot of silt and pine needles have been a problem. There are screens on the intake, but they are still watering the plant and keeping the units running.
Walje said the spring or fall is the best time for overhauls because demand for power is lower. Walje said they will keep looking for the best solutions and they will keep running and producing electricity while staying in compliance.
After the media portion of Walje’s visit, he addressed city and county leaders and business owners. Deb Dull introduced Walje. He said PacifiCorp has been a Berkshire-Hathaway subsidiary since 2006. They own interest in the Pacific Northwest, Nevada, Wyoming, Iowa and two natural gas pipelines, interest in the Philippines and the United Kingdom. They will have 8 million customers as soon as another deal they are working on is finished. “We have a broad portfolio, we paid $68 million in property taxes and employ 2,022 people. RMP recently settled a rate case where they will receive a 2 percent increase this year and a 1 percent increase next year. Higher costs are due to capital investments the company has made including the Lakeside Natural gas plant in Orem along with new transmission lines from Richfield to the Red Butte line and emission controls on existing plants. Cost of producing electricity has doubled.
Walje stressed that even though costs continue to go up, Utah residential customers pay approximately $80 per month. That’s less than $3 a day. It’s the best value in society. Utah still ranks in the bottom 20 percent for low rates.
Since 2010 Rocky Mountain Power operating costs have gone down. Rocky Mountain Power provides safe and reliable service. Walje said most outages are caused by the wind, mylar balloons and animals. In 2000, in a survey, less than half the customers surveyed were happy with their service. The company managers were challenged to find out why and change that. Now the satisfaction rating is up to 95 percent. The company gives 48 hour notice to customers for a planned outage. In 2013, $900,000 was contributed by the PacifiCorp Foundation and another half million in philanthropic support of communities they serve. They provide their employees with opportunities to serve and provide educational programs to schools including WattSmart which encourages electricity conservation.
Special emphasis is placed on safety for employees and its rated one of the safest utilities to work in America. In 2005, the company wrecked about a vehicle a day, now so far this year only nine RMP vehicles have been involved in accidents. The company has been very environmentally friendly using hydroelectric, geothermal and wind projects. Currently coal provides 62 percent of Rocky Mountain Power’s energy. Gas provides 12.9 percent, renewables, 9.7 percent; purchases 4.4 percent, energy efficiency, 2.1 percent, hydroelectric-6.8 percent. By 2024 the resource mix will be coal-46 percent, gas-26 percent and renewables 11.5 percent.
“Change is part of our business,” said Walje. As technologies change they will be part of the future of the company.