Name: Clean energy program adjusts as Rocky Mountain Power pivots - The Times-Independent
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Clean energy program adjusts as Rocky Mountain Power pivots - The Times-Independent

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A coalition of Utah counties and municipalities hoping to acquire 100% net renewable energy will have to adjust some of their plans as Rocky Mountain Power announced a near-term pivot away from renewable energy and towards coal.
Members of the Utah Renewable Communities coalition, which includes Grand County, Moab and Castle Valley, are aiming to acquire net-100% renewable energy by 2030. Part of their plans included piggybacking on Rocky Mountain Power’s acquisition of new renewable energy sources, but the program must chart a new course after the energy provider announced earlier this month it was temporarily rolling back its pursuit of new renewable energy projects and extending some of its coal operations.
The change isn’t necessarily a direct setback to the program but may be a disappointment for Utahns seeking greener energy options, said Christopher Thomas, a board member for Utah Renewable Communities.
“It’s disappointing that Rocky Mountain Power has pressed pause on its near-term clean energy plans,” said Thomas, who is also Salt Lake City’s senior energy and climate program manager. “But that makes the Utah Renewable Communities more important than ever.”
Thomas said the coalition is planning to put out its own request for proposals for renewable energy projects. Until April the group had hoped to piggyback off the energy provider’s own request, but Rocky Mountain Power announced it was canceling the entire request.
Dave Eskelsen, a spokesperson for Rocky Mountain Power, said “there really isn’t any direct effect” on the Utah program.
“They [Utah Renewable Communities] have always had the option to set up their own resource procurement process,” Eskelsen said. “So, cancellation of the 2022 [request] does not necessarily impede their ability to acquire renewable energy projects.”
Instead, Eskelsen said Rocky Mountain Power will help the coalition develop a new method to solicit renewable energy proposals. The coalition doesn’t currently envision needing more money from its 18 member communities, Thomas said.
Since joining the coalition, Moab and Grand County have each paid about $8,000 in dues. Castle Valley paid just over $400.
Alexi Lamm, the City of Moab’s sustainability director, said the Rocky Mountain Power announcement has not affected Moab’s participation in the program. She said the development might be seen as a setback but the coalition has responded proactively.
“We knew it was coming and solutions have been under development for a little while,” Lamm said.
The Utah Renewable Communities program was created in 2019 to provide Utahns with a way to achieve 100% net renewable energy. “Net renewable” means each community will procure enough renewable energy to offset the amount it consumes, though it might not always be directly using the renewable stuff.
“Though we may not directly consume renewable energy resources, somewhere that renewable energy is being put into the greater power grid that we draw from,” said then-Grand County Commissioner Sarah Stock in October 2022.
The goal is to achieve 100% net renewable energy by 2030. The participating communities represent one-quarter of Rocky Mountain Power’s roughly 800,000 Utah customers, though residents can also opt out of the program.
Thomas said the program is envisioned to add between $2 and $7 to the typical household’s monthly energy bill. And Rocky Mountain Power’s decision to cancel its request for proposals could potentially lower that cost, he said, by opening up the metaphorical cream of the renewable energy crop.
“We had anticipated acquiring resources through Rocky Mountain Power’s solicitation. This would’ve meant that Rocky Mountain Power would’ve selected the most cost-effective resources and our program would only see less cost-effective resources,” Thomas said. “Now that Rocky Mountain Power has cancelled their solicitation, we have the opportunity by running our own solicitation to see much more cost-effective resources that could mean a lower bill impact for participating customers.”
Thomas said he would not characterize the development as a setback.
“If anything, it makes our next step of seeking clean energy resources more urgent and more important than it was before,” he said.
Indeed, Rocky Mountain Power’s updated resource plan, released April 1, spells out near-term defeats for renewable energy and a greater emphasis on coal.
Eskelsen clarified that Rocky Mountain Power suspended its entire 2022 request for proposals, not just the request for renewable energy projects.
“There were several reasons for this, mostly having to do with evolving market conditions,” he said.
One reason is that PacifiCorp, which owns Rocky Mountain Power, has been contending with skyrocketing insurance premiums due to the West’s recent increase in catastrophic wildfires.
The most direct reason, though, was likely a judicial stay placed on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Utah ozone plan. The stay halted several forthcoming restrictions on the operations of Rocky Mountain Power’s Hunter and Huntington power plants, which are located in Emery County.
“That meant that those resources were available in more hours than would have occurred had the rule been implemented,” Eskelsen said. As a result, Rocky Mountain Power will rely more heavily on those plants than anticipated due to their lower cost and increased reliability.
“We have a legal mandate to produce power for least cost, least risk,” Eskelsen said.
The company is also rolling back early retirement plans for the coal-fired units within the two plants. While they had been planned for retirement in 2032, as of April Rocky Mountain Power announced they’re now planning to keep them running until 2036 for Huntington and 2042 in Hunter.
Eskelsen emphasized that Rocky Mountain Power still plans to expand its renewable energy portfolio — just farther down the line.
“There’s still a significant amount of renewable energy procurement in our future,” he said. “It’s just that because of these regulatory changes the need for that generating capacity has been pushed out to later years.”
				




			
		
A coalition of Utah counties and municipalities hoping to acquire 100% net renewable energy will have to adjust some of their plans as Rocky Mountain Power announced a near-term pivot away from renewable energy and towards coal.
Members of the Utah Renewable Communities coalition, which includes Grand County, Moab and Castle Valley, are aiming to acquire net-100% renewable energy by 2030. Part of their plans included piggybacking on Rocky Mountain Power’s acquisition of new renewable energy sources, but the program must chart a new course after the energy provider announced earlier...

Clean energy program adjusts as Rocky Mountain Power pivots - The Times-Independent

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