Font Resize- Nuclear power in Utah
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A small Arizona electric utility formally has expressed interest in a nuclear power plant proposed for Utah.
General Manager Bryan Hill said a memorandum of understanding between his 8,000-customer utility and Blue Castle Holdings Inc. "basically says Page is interested in this project," a 3,000-megawatt plant proposed off of Interstate 70 near Green River.
Hill noted that his utility has not committed any funds to become an equity owner. "At this point, it's exploratory."
Page relies largely on hydropower from nearby Glen Canyon Dam and supplements that with government-purchased power on the spot market. Another 30 megawatts of base-load electricity will be needed in the next decade.
"All signs, whether popular or not," Hill said, "are pointing to nuclear. You've got to have some power plants if you want electricity."
Blue Castle, an offshoot of Transition Power Development LLC, a company led by former Utah legislator Aaron Tilton, announced the agreement last week, signaling further progress on a project with an estimated construction cost of up to $15 billion.
Tilton said Monday the driving interest for Page -- growing demand, no new coal plants and unpredictable costs for natural-gas plants -- also is prompting public and private utilities to look more closely at his project. He declined to name other interested parties.
"We haven't been authorized," he said, "to release any information about any other entities
In August, Blue Castle signed up with Enercon Services Inc. to be the primary contractor in preparing and submitting a site permit for the nuclear plant to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The license application, tentatively set to go to the NRC in April, probably will not be ready until 2011, Tilton said.
The former Republican lawmaker from Springville also said recently his company, after laying the groundwork for the plant, will take a back seat to other equity owners during construction and operation. He likened the model to the Intermountain Power Project, a kind of cooperative for the coal-fired power produced by the Delta plant that includes 36 participants in Utah and other states.
"We are a merchant developer," he said, adding that Blue Castle members "plan on being there for a long time."
