HURRICANE — In their last meeting, civic leaders in Hurricane heard about alternatives to the power they purchase from the United Association of Municipal Power Systems, known in the industry by the acronym UAMPS.

UAMPS General Manager Mason Baker told St. George News after the meeting that plans to provide power to Southern Utah using small nuclear reactors in Idaho fizzled out months ago.

“We terminated our development of the project back in November,” Baker said. “We are in the process of winding down the project.”

Known as the Carbon Free Power Project, plans for the nuclear reactors relied on backing from municipalities in several Western states. A date to either gain enough support or pull the plug on the development was set for Dec. 31, 2023.

“We knew by November that we weren’t going to hit that,” Baker said. “And we added structure to where we would be able to terminate under those circumstances and get reimbursed for our development costs from the nuclear company that we were developing it with.”

Baker was in Hurricane to assure city leaders and utility supervisors that there are many UAMPS developments in the works to ensure the residents of the valley have power. Many of the new sources come from renewable energy sources such as wind and solar.

“We have always been pursuing additional, new power generation outside of the Carbon Free Power Project,” Baker said. “We need to be doing new power generation to handle the load in this area as fast as it’s growing.”

One of those — the Steel Solar Project — went online in March, Baker told the council. Support from Hurricane and other participating UAMPS municipalities converted approximately 1,670 acres of vacant agricultural land in northeast Box Elder County into land used for solar power generation.

“We are looking at adding battery storage to this one,” he said.

Expansions are pending for the Horse Butte Wind Project near Idaho Falls and a solar project planned for Southern Utah is taking shape, Baker added.

“We are negotiating the long-term power purchase agreement right now,” he said. “I would expect this to come back to the governing bodies around (a) May or June time period for consideration.”

Located north of Paragonah, the Fremont Solar and Storage Project could be constructed and deliver power to Southern Utah customers as early as mid-2026. Baker noted the development was started and then stopped by PacifiCorp.

UAMPS also has two sites in Nevada under consideration for geothermal and natural gas production.

Hurricane Substation Superintendent Jared Ross gave the council an update on the Three Falls substation after city officials started the process of obtaining easements for the project in 2021.

“We saw the potential load growth to the south fields area explode,” Ross said.

With much of the work completed, Ross said finishing touches are still needed, such as hanging signs, painting, site cleanup and power testing.

“We’re getting really close,” he said.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2024, all rights reserved.

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