PLANT
TOUR • John Bowater, plant manager,
explains plant operation to Deseret News
writer Dave Anderton.as David Eskelsen,
PacifiCorp/Utah Power spokesman listens.
The plant, while still under construction,
began generation of power. The plant
should be completed in 2006.
By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
It is, very much, still a construction site but the
Currant Creek power plant began generating electricity this
week for the first time.
In addition, the long awaited power generation will
mean a larger tax base for Juab County and will bring some
dollars to the table for needed projects.
"We have not applied for a tax break," said Robert A.
Van Engelenhoven, P.E., Manager of Resource Development for
PacifiCorp.
He said that did not seem right, to ask an area to
welcome them and then take part of that joy away. PacifiCorp
will pay the fair tax on its holdings which will be good
news to county residents.
To celebrate the first power generation at the
facility, members of the press were invited to meet in the
new office building and take a walking tour of the plant
site which has begun its life supplying enough power to
light up approximately 144,000 homes.
"This week, on June 20, we were called on to begin
producing power," said John Bowater, plant manager.
The plant is operating as a single cycle producer of
power for the high demand summer months. That will change at
the end of summer.
On-hand for the tour were Bowater; David
Eskelsen, Corporate Communications, PacifiCorp/Utah Power,
Utah Power's parent company; and Van Engelenhoven.
Since more Utahns are switching to central air
conditioning and more homes are being built all along the
Wasatch Front, electrical demand is increasing by leaps and
bounds.
In fact, peak electrical demand is increasing by 5.4
percent each year and base demand is rising at 2.6 percent
annually.
"The summer operation will continue through to
October," said Bowater. "Then the plant will shut down and
the 280 megawatt simple cycle will be converted to the 525
megawatt combined cycle."
The plant will then be ready to go back on line with
full capacity by April 2006.
"The one thing that's really great about this plant is
the flexibility options in providing power to customers,"
said Bowater. "On those high-demand days, the plant can
respond quickly."
The summer production rate Current Creek is providing
gives the extra power needed to prevent summer brown-outs
(where the lights get dim) and outages.
But once it is finished and on-line, the combined
cycle will generate 420 megawatts. The duct firing mechanism
being constructed will add additional peaking capability of
105 megawatts.
At full capacity, the natural gas fired combined cycle
project will produce electricity with two gas turbines, two
heat recovery steam generators and one steam turbine.
The completed plant will be connected to the 345 kV
transmission backbone at Mona.Most of that generation will
find its way to Utah Power customers along the Wasatch
Front.
Eskelsen said the staff in commerce and trading
located at PacifiCorp's Portland office determines the
amount of power to be generated and just where in the power
grid system that power will be directed.
The office then dispatches the order of how much power
needs to be generated.
"That changes from hour to hour and day to day," said
Bowater.
The changes come because the system is economically
driven.
"We run on market economics," he said.
The $350 million Currant Creek power plant is the
first of three natural gas-fired plants planned for Utah
over the next four years.
There are two 80-foot stacks,
The plant employs 24 people full time. Two men work in
the control center around the clock on shifts of 12-hours
each.
There are approximately 400 construction workers still
on site but that number will continue to dwindle as the work
on the second phase winds down.
When completed, the plant will provide enough power
for nearly 270,000 homes.
Currant Creek is the first significant power plant
over 300 megawatts to be built since 1983, when the Hunter
power plant's third unit became operational, said
Eskelsen.
"The growth in electricity consumption demand in Utah
is just enormous," Bowater said. "Five percent growth is the
sign of a very healthy economy. I've never seen so much
home-building going on."
Operating at full capacity, Currant Creek will consume
90,000 decatherms of natural gas per day. The gas supply
will come from a 13-mile line connected to Questar.
"Both Questar and Kern River lines are high pressure
gas transmission pipelines with 1075 psi," said Bowater.
Another bit of good news for local residents is that
the natural gas fuel used at the plant means that the air
quality will not be compromised in any way. Unlike
coal-fired power plants, the Currant Creek plant does not
need scrubbers.
In addition, the water which has been recycled finally
ends up in the evaporation pond. That water is also
extremely pure water as is the steam made from the water in
the first place.
"Currant Creek is quiet," said Bowater.
He pointed out that the plant had started up at 11
a.m. while reporters were in the control room and there was
no loud noise to call attention to the fact that the plant
was again on-line for the day.
The plant is not on all of the time. It comes on line,
presently, just for the peak use hours of the day.
One thing he was proud of, said Bowater, was that over
1.0 million man hours have been worked to date with a peak
of 400 construction staff on site at one time.
"Safety has been important to us," he said. "We have
no lost time accidents and only five recordable incidents.
That is a safety record eight times better than the Utah
average and six times better than the national average for
construction projects."
PacifiCorp has commissioned a second power plant,
which is under construction at the former Geneva Steel site
in Vineyard. The utility will be soliciting bids for a third
power plant this summer.
"Our resource planning has indicated that there'll be
a substantial need for this kind of investment to serve the
growing demand for electricity," Eskelsen said.
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