Huge gas power plant to be built here

A 160-megawatt (MW) gas turbine power plant will be built in Mountain Home in the city's industrial park just north of The Pilot.

The Idaho Power Board of Directors last week authorized the all-electric utility to enter into a development contract to construct the facility, which will be developed by Boise-based Mountain View Power, Inc. (MVP). The plan will then be purchased by Idaho Power upon completion.

The project cost -- including plant construction and associated transmission system upgrades -- will be $61 million, Idaho Power officials said.

While only three or four employees will be needed to run the plant, MVP President Bob Looper said approximately 75 workers will be hired during the eight-months it will take to build the plant.

It is not known at present exactly how much of an increase in the tax base the new plant will represent for the city and county. Utilities are taxed using a "central assessment" system whereby the 21 counties that have Idaho Power facilities in them share the assessed valuation of a facility, based largely on the mileage of transmission lines in each county. Elmore County historically has received about 10 percent of Idaho Power's total assessment among those counties.

Looper credited the Mayor and the City Council of Mountain Home for helping MVP win the Idaho Power bid.

"Mayor Jett, the city council and the economic development office made a commitment to us early on, that they wanted a solid economic development plan. They made this happen," Looper said.

Boise-based MVP has been working with the City of Mountain Home for two years on the siting and development of the proposed power plant.

Ron Swearingen, Mountain Home's Director of the Office of Economic Development has coordinated the City's involvement and believes the Mountain View Power Plant "fits nicely" with the city plans for industrial growth and expansion into the Mountain View Industrial Park.

Mayor Dave Jett said he has experienced the ups and downs that seem to be connected with power development over the last 3 years.

"The City of Mountain Home has worked hard to create opportunities for growth that fits the profile of the City. We are excited about the development of the power plant within the city's designated Industrial Park, and look forward to a long-term relationship with Idaho Power at the industrial park and in this community" Jett said.

The decision to give the green light to the project by Idaho Power follows a competitive bidding process initiated through a Request for Proposals (RFP) announced by Idaho Power in February. The RFP bidding process yielded a short list in May with MVP selected this month.

The need for the natural gas-fired power plant was identified in the company's 2002 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP). An IRP is developed every two years and identifies long-term electricity deficits and suggests low-cost, highly reliable resources to meet those needs.

The project will use a simple-cycle turbine that uses an engine similar to a jet aircraft engine to turn a shaft that rotates a generator to produce electricity.

MVP has contracted with Siemens-Westinghouse Power Corporation to furnish all of the labor, equipment and materials required for the project and to perform the engineering for construction of the plant.

The project will be built in Mountain Home's industrial park north of the city, but getting the huge turbines in place will not be easy, as none of them can go through a typical interstate underpass. A special temporary road may have to be built in order to bring them into the plant site, according to Swearingen.

In 2001 the City of Mountain Home issued MVP a conditional use permit for a 120 MW power plant, and just recently amended the permit to allow the 160 MW plant. MVP expects to obtain an air quality permit by the end of the year.

MVP plans to break ground on the project in the first quarter of 2004. It must be completed, tested and ready for turnover to Idaho Power by April 1, 2005.

Idaho Power will take ownership of the plant as a turnkey operation and assume full responsibility for its operation and maintenance.

The new unit will be the company's second natural gas-fired peaking resource. The other is the 90-MW Danskin generation unit, located in the Evander Andrews Power Complex west of Mountain Home.

Peaking resources are used during specific times when consumption of electricity by Idaho Power customers rises sharply to its highest daily levels.

Peak loads typically occur in July and August when air conditioning and irrigation loads reach their maximum.

The company's record demand for electricity occurred on July 12, 2002, when Idaho Power customers required 2,963 MW of electricity.

The units also would be available in the event of a loss of other Idaho Power generation or transmission lines. This adds to Idaho Power's overall service reliability and increases the company's generating resource self sufficiency, said Dennis Lopez, and Idaho Power spokesperson.

Idaho Power will soon file a request with the Idaho Public Utilities Commission (IPUC) for a Certificate of Convenience and Necessity.

The request will outline the company's need for the plant and its plans for operation and its projected cost of construction. Obtaining the certificate is a necessary step in obtaining permission from the IPUC to eventually place the costs of the project into the company's rates.

Idaho Power is a subsidiary of Boise-based IDACORP. It is an all-electric utility that serves more than 400,000 customers in southern Idaho and eastern Oregon. It owns and operates 17 power hydroelectric power plants on the Snake River or its tributaries. The company also is part owner to coal-fired power plants in Nevada, Oregon and Wyoming.

The company built the natural gas-fired, 90-megawatt Evander Andrews Power Complex in 2001 in response to the Northwest energy crisis. The Andrews Complex is composed of the Danskin Power Plant and Danskin Transmission Substation. The principals of MVP have developed power plant projects throughout the United States, including a 600-MW combined-cycle generating station in Blythe, Calif.