In order to carry out plans to considerably increase the quantity of wind energy reaching consumers by 2020, Rocky Mountain Power has chosen four additional wind projects.
Projects Selected by Rocky Mountain Power for Major Wind Power Expansion
Courtesy Mountain Power Rocky
The four projects will provide enough additional wind energy to power around 450,000 typical households and increase Rocky Mountain Output’s owned and contracted wind power by more than 60%.
Following the release of a request for proposals in September 2017, the bids were chosen. For the corporation to choose the most affordable new wind projects, the RFP provides a competitive bidding procedure. These are the four chosen projects:
A 400 MW wind project with half owned by PacifiCorp and the other half owned and supplied by NextEra under a power purchase agreement will be erected in Converse County, Wyoming, by NextEra Energy Resources, LLC.
a 161 MW wind farm that will be constructed by Invenergy, LLC and managed by PacifiCorp in Uinta County, Wyoming.
a 500 MW wind farm that will be developed, owned, and managed by PacifiCorp in the Wyoming counties of Carbon and Albany.
a 250 MW wind farm in Carbon County, Wyoming, that PacifiCorp will construct, own, and manage.
According to Cindy A. Crane, president and chief executive officer of Rocky Mountain Power, “the new wind projects are part of the company’s Energy Vision 2020 effort, which will considerably increase the company’s Wyoming wind fleet and boost the state and local economies.” To link the new wind energy to Rocky Mountain Power’s grid, the project also includes a 140-mile section of the Gateway West high-voltage transmission line in Wyoming.
The company’s 2017 Integrated Resource Plan identified the increased wind power and related transmission line as part of a larger strategy to most efficiently satisfy customers’ energy demands over the following 20 years. The firm will be able to leverage federal production tax credits to offer net cost savings to clients throughout the course of the projects if the wind projects are finished by 2020.
The four new wind projects are expected to cost around $1.5 billion, which is much cheaper per megawatt than when the new wind and transmission plan was initially unveiled in April of last year. The Energy Vision 2020 effort is less expensive to implement per megawatt than other resource choices, such as energy market purchases, in order to satisfy anticipated consumer energy demands.
Construction of the new wind and transmission projects is anticipated to start in 2019, subject to approval from state commissions, the purchase of rights of way, and the issuance of permits. For more information on Energy Vision 2020, see the following link.