Matt Draper, superintendent of Hyrum City Power, explains the operation of the city’s hydro-electric power plant to open house guests.
HYRUM – When coal fired power is shut down and renewable energy is the only option, what happens to wind and solar power when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine? Hyrum City Power and Light may have the answer.
Hyrum City has a small 500 kilovolt hydroelectric plant in Blacksmith Fork Canyon. Using the nearby river, the power plant can produce about 350 kilovolts of electricity daily. Back in 1928 when it was built, it could send enough electricity to light up the whole small farming community, but not anymore.
“The hydro power plant is upgraded about every five years,” said Matt Draper, Hyrum City’s power superintendent. “It generally peaks at about 350 KV, but the city uses about 26 Megavolts (MV), so we have to purchase electricity from other sources.”
It would take almost three times the 350 kilowatts produced by the city’s hydropower plant to make one megawatt. With the growth in housing Draper is thinking by 2024, the city will need to purchase even more power.
“We buy power from coal fired plants, as well as wind farms, solar energy, natural gas. We want to buy at the lowest rates we can get,” Draper said. “We use power we get from the Utah Associated Municipalities Power Systems (UAMPS).”
Hyrum’s electrical utility is a community-owned non-profit power company so it can provide public power at low rates and the city council governs the operation.
UAMPS powers 47 municipalities in Utah and six out-of-state cities. The electrical non-profit does what it can to buy power and build or buy facilities to operate and maintain a variety of projects and transmission systems to benefit their members.
To power the different cities, they own or use the services of different power projects to generate electricity using a combination of solar, wind, hydro, coal or natural gas-powered producing operations.
Hyrum City and nearly 30 other cities are investing in the future of a small modular nuclear reactor near Idaho Falls, Idaho to supplement their power needs.
Lavar Webb, a spokesman for UAMPS, said the Idaho small modular nuclear power plant is the next generation reactor and it is the first of its kind in the country.
“There was a lot of support for it both by the Obama Administration and the Trump Administration because it produces carbon free pollution,” he said. “And it keeps the United States on the fore front of nuclear reactor technology.”
Webb said the U.S. Department of Energy supported this project with money because it compliments renewable energy.
“The sun doesn’t always shine, and the wind doesn’t blow all of the time, so the renewables have to have a back up,” he said. “Coal plants will likely be shut down in the next 10 years. Nuclear power could bridge the gap.”
Nuclear power can complement renewables making a lot of UAMPS clients excited about the project. The power is variable. If a city needs less power or more power during peak times, a city can get only what it needs.
The Idaho National Laboratory near Idaho Falls opened in 1949 and has hosted 50 different nuclear reactors over the years. The small town of Arco near INL was the first city in the world powered solely by nuclear power back in 1955.
“INL is where the nuclear systems for the submarine was developed, “Webb said. “This project is at INL and we will be able to take advantage of their experience and technology.”
Idaho Falls is supportive of nuclear power and it is close to major transmission lines.
UAMPS formally launched the Carbon Free Power Project (CFPP) in 2015 as part of its long-term strategy to reduce carbon emissions and address Clean Air Act requirements facing coal-fired plants.
UAMPS said nuclear power provides baseload power supply in an environmentally responsible manner and be complimentary to a high penetration of renewable generation.
When fully commercialized, small reactors made by NuScale will play a crucial role in providing zero-carbon power to a modernized grid, revitalizing the U.S. nuclear energy industry, and promoting even greater nuclear safety and security standards around the world.
In August, Logan City abandoned its previous plans to move forward in the Small Modular Reactor program. At the same time, the Utah Taxpayers Association urged all Utah cities to reconsider their participation in the SMR project due to its potential for out-of-control costs.