By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
Friday it became official&emdash;East Juab County will
be the site of the Current Creek power project.
The $345 million natural gas-fired power plant got the
go-ahead from state regulators on that day.
The Utah Public Service Commission concluded, after
hearings where those protesting and those defending the bid
process were heard, that PacifiCorp's Currant Creek project
was the best alternative of more than 100 outside bids
received by the company.
Navigant Consulting was hired by PacifiCorp to monitor
the procedure used to evaluate the bid process.
Following evaluation of bids received, PacifiCorp
selected the option to self-build and, as a result, has
encountered robust opposition to the selection and the
process. One bidder, in particular, along with the Utah
Association of Energy Users, a group comprised of the
state's largest industrial ratepayers, entered protest.
Dallas-based Spring Canyon Energy LLC, one of the
losing bidders, said it could build the same 525-megawatt
power plant for $310 million and charged the bid process was
unfair.
"Spring Canyon Energy was one of only two bidders to
provide testimony in this case, and the only one of
thirty-seven who complained about the process," the
commission said.
Officials of Spring Canyon charged that Navigant
helped PacifiCorp manipulate the bids and, thereby, gave the
utility's self-build option the advantage.
"We are persuaded by the company (PacifiCorp),
division and Navigant testimony that the process and
evaluation methods are fair and reasonable for the task of
screening for competitive bids," announced the Utah Public
Service Commission.
A looming power crunch expected to occur by the summer
2005, made the suggestion to rebid unappealing and
impractical in the view of the PSC who rejected the idea
saying the delay could affect summer 2005 resource
needs.
In any case, the PSC indicated they were not convinced
any alternative evaluation was superior to that used by the
company and sided with the Utah Division of Public Utilities
that the methods used by PacifiCorp were fair to
consumers.
"If there are third party deals out there that
are in the best interest of customers, we'll take them,"
Dave Eskelsen, a spokesman for PacifiCorp, said. "We don't
have a bias to building our own resources, but when our own
resources score out better than anything else, why not take
them? It only makes sense."
However, Mark Axford, a Houston-based energy
consultant who has represented both independent power
providers and utilities, said a process is flawed whenever
the party requesting the bids and evaluating the bids is
also a bidder and, therefore, is free to enter a bid and
then declare itself a winner.
PacifiCorp officials say Utah is facing a
projected 1,049-megawatt power shortage by the summer of
2005. A megawatt is enough electricity to power 500 to 750
homes.
On Monday, objectors involved in hearings about the
plant concluded their testimony and the three-member PSC
announced its decision Friday.
The utility, based in Portland, operates in Utah as
Utah Power and is internationally owned by Scottish Power.
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