June 29, 2008

Plant needs to meet new standards to sell power to Washington

By RICHARD ECKE
Tribune Staff Writer

Demand for power is surging in central Washington's Grant County, where computer server farms owned by Microsoft, Yahoo and several other business giants hum 24 hours a day.

"We've got five server farms and more coming," said Tim Culbertson, general manager of the Ephrata-based Grant County Public Utility District.

The public power utility uses hydroelectric power from such facilities as the nearby Wanapum and Priest Rapids dams on the Columbia River, plus a small amount of wind power, to provide electricity to a growing region.

Culbertson said the utility is very interested in obtaining about 75 megawatts of spare power from the proposed Highwood Generating Station near Great Falls.

"Our average load right now is approximately 400 megawatts," Culbertson said, adding that, despite a nationwide economic downturn, "we're still planning on 200 megawatts of growth in the next five years."

There is a big "if" surrounding the Clark County utility's participation in the Highwood project. The Montana plant would need to meet Washington's emission standards for imported energy. Washington prohibits utilities from signing contracts to purchase power generated from dirty coal. Culbertson said the planned Highwood plant is billed as clean coal, with a potential for carbon capture — technology that captures emitted carbon and stores it.

"I think there's a chance that it might (meet standards)," he said in a telephone interview Friday.

But the agency will need to check with the Washington State Department of Ecology and other officials to see if Highwood would pass muster.

Coal-fired power from Montana isn't the only power option the public utility district is considering. The agency also is looking at more wind power, and perhaps even biomass energy, Culbertson said. There also are ways to pull more power from dams and reservoirs by upgrading equipment or adding turbines.

Plus, "solar costs are coming down," he said.

Culbertson said coal power also must be considered, especially since it is one of the few ways the country could reduce its dependence on foreign energy sources.

He said he has heard a bit of skepticism from his agency's board about using coal-fired power, but added it's important to look at the big picture.

Coal power may have an image problem in the country right now, but such perceptions can change quickly, Culbertson said.

"Five years ago, if you'd talked nuclear power, you would have been laughed out of a room," Culbertson said. Now nuclear power is being touted as a good way to foil climate change, even if new nuclear plants are 15 years away.

Meanwhile, coal remains an option.

"I think everybody's hope is that they can improve the technology for carbon sequestration," Culbertson said. Capturing carbon dioxide and shoving it underground could keep that gas from further contributing to climate change, as many scientists believe it does.

Critics of the Highwood plant argue for renewable energy sources such as wind — with natural gas-fired firming power for peak usage times and when the wind doesn't blow — and energy conservation.

"I'm all for doing conservation," Culbertson said, but added that the way families live these days, with cell phones, personal digital assistants, computers and TVs, more power may be needed.

Culbertson said new flat-panel televisions use three to five times as much power as analog TV sets do.

"We have all these devices," he said. "They're huge energy (drains)."

Plus, a possible future trend in motor vehicles is hybrid cars that plug into electrical sockets to recharge.

"What does that do to me as a utility?" he asked.

Meanwhile, the Clark County public utility plans to check into whether power from the Highwood plant is a legal option.

"We're going to follow the statute," Culbertson said. Passed by the Washington state Legislature in 2007, Senate Bill 6001 limited coal plants to no more than 1,100 pounds of emitted greenhouse gases per megawatt hour. Plants are allowed to capture and sequester enough carbon dioxide to meet the limit. The same law applies to electricity imported from out-of-state coal plants.

Culbertson said a proposed coal plant near Kalama, Wash., failed to gain a permit last year because it did not provide a plan to sequester emitted carbon dioxide.

Highwood officials have said the plant will capture and sequester carbon dioxide if it is feasible and affordable to do so.

Culbertson said he expects to know by September whether the Montana plant will meet Washington law.

Great Falls' Ken Thornton, who served on an advisory group to the governor's Climate Change Committee in Montana, said the Washington standard is "equivalent to what a (natural) gas-powered plant gives off."

That means the Highwood plant would need to cut its greenhouse gas emissions in half to meet Washington's requirements.

Thornton said the Highwood plant might have a chance to meet Washington's standard, although the needed technology may take five to 10 years to develop.

He said he would prefer to see Highwood's developers opt for wind power combined with firming power from a natural gas-fired plant.

Carbon capture is expected to add about $30 per megawatt hour to a coal plant's power costs, Thornton said. That estimate could push Highwood's electricity costs to more than $80 per megawatt hour.

"I think that the alternatives will be cheaper in the long run," Thornton said.