Intermountain Power Project (IPP)
By Don Strack
This page was last updated on April 20, 2007
(Incomplete… research continues)
Intermountain Power Agency (IPA) is the owner of the Intermountain Power Project (IPP) located in the Great Basin of western Utah. IPP generates an average of more than 13 million megawatt hours of energy each year from its two coal-fired units. The energy is delivered over the project’s AC and DC transmission systems to 36 participants in the project that principally serve Utah and Southern California. Additional generation capacity at the IPP site is now being studied. This web site contains information about IPA, its management, key contracts, financial statements, annual reports and NRMSIR filing. (source)
Intermountain Power Agency is a separate legal entity and a political subdivision of the State of Utah and was organized in June 1977 as a result of The Utah Interlocal Co-operation Act and under the Intermountain Power Agency Organization Agreement, dated May 10, 1977. IPA was organized for the purposes of undertaking and financing a facility to generate electricity, now known as the Intermountain Power Project. As authorized by the Act, the membership of IPA consists of 23 Utah municipalities that own electric utilities. All member entities are located within the State of Utah and are as follows (source). The list of participants in IPA include six California cities, owning 75 percent; 23 Utah cities, owning 14 percent; six Utah cooperatives, owning 7 percent, and Utah Power (now Rocky Mountain Power) which owns 4 perecent. (List of participants)
From Jim Harrawood's UtahRails.com web site:
The concept for the Intermountain Power Project began in 1970 when the Intermountain Consumer Power Association (ICPA) was notified by the Federal government that there would not be sufficient energy available to meet its needs from the Colorado River Storage Project after 1976. Following this notice, ICPA began considering alternatives for future resources and in 1973 met with a number of Southern California municipalities to explore interest in a joint action agency power project.
As a result of these activities, the Intermountain Power Project Corporation was formed as a non-profit corporation under the laws of the State of Utah on January 18, 1974 for the purpose of investigating the feasibility of constructing and operating a thermal powered generating resource. Shortly thereafter, in July 1974, ICPA and the California Purchasers entered into the IPP Membership and Study Agreement, setting forth membership interests and voting rights in IPP. In March 1977, the Utah State Legislature amended the Act to allow municipalities to jointly develop electric generating facilities, and on June 22, 1977, the 23 Utah municipalities listed above organized IPA as a political subdivision of the State of Utah to finance, construct and operate the Project.
Approximately one year later, on August 24, 1978, Power Sales Contracts were offered and in response the 23 Utah municipalities, six Utah cooperatives, Utah Power & Light Company, and six California municipalities agreed to accept the generation and capacity of the Project. The Power Sales Contracts were signed as of September 28, 1978 with the exception of the California Purchasers which signed as of August 6, 1980. The Power Sales Contracts provide for, among other things, the creation of the Coordinating Committee and for IPA and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (the "Department") to enter into a Construction Management and Operating Agreement.
The three main components of the Project are located primarily in Utah and California. The Generation Station is located near Lynndyl, Millard County, Utah. The STS extends approximately 490 miles from the Generation Station to Adelanto, California with an alternating current/direct current converter station at each end. The Northern Transmission System (the "NTS") consists of two segments. The first segment, consisting of two parallel 345-kV AC transmission lines, extends approximately 50 miles from the Generation Station to a switchyard located near Mona, Utah. The second segment, consisting of a single 230-kV AC transmission line, extends approximately 144 miles from the Generation Station to the Gonder Switchyard located eight miles north of Ely, Nevada.
The West Ridge Project consists of the West Ridge Mine which is now under development in the Book Cliffs coal region in central Utah near East Carbon. The project is owned on a 50/50 basis by Intermountain Power Agency and ANDALEX Resources, Inc. It is being developed and will be operated by West Ridge Resources, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of ANDALEX Resources, Inc. ANDALEX will also be responsible for the marketing of the production. West Ridge will be a longwall mining operation with full production planned for the year 2001 at the rate of 3.5 million tons per year.
A portion of the coal used is loaded at the Andalex Loadout located at Wildcat, UT on the Utah RY. IPPX has their own unit train hoppers.
From Yahoo Finance:
If you're into mountains Intermountain Power Agency (IPA) may well be the key to your access to power. IPA was formed in 1977 by 23 Utah municipal electric utilities to develop and operate the Intermountain Power Project (IPP), a two-unit coal-fired generation facility with a capacity of 1,700 MW, and two high-voltage transmission systems. The company's facilities, which began operating in 1987, supply power to the 23 founding municipalities. IPA also sells power through contracts with 13 additional utilities in Utah and California. The IPA is operated by The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. (source)
From Utah Geological Survey:
The Intermountain Power Agency (IPA) and its Intermountain Power Project (IPP), located just north of Delta, Utah, were created in 1976 to meet the power needs of some 23 public agencies and municipalities in Utah. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is the operating agent, as nearly all IPP power is exported to 27 California municipalities until such time as Utah allotments are called in to meet in-state demand.
As of April 2004, IPP increased its capacity rating to 1,800 MW, making it the largest power generation facility in Utah. In 2003, IPP generated a net of 13,553 GWh of power and purchased 5.3 million tons of Utah coal, the majority of which came from Canyon Fuel mines. The remaining amount of coal was supplied by the Andalex mines, two of which are partly owned by IPA. In addition, a small amount of coal was purchased from the Emery mine before it became idle in August 2003.
Plans for expanding IPP by adding a third unit would increase generation capability by another 950 MW in 2009. This additional capacity is intended to supply power to communities in Utah, New Mexico and Arizona. Coal consumption would rise almost 40 percent with such an expansion. This new demand is expected to be met mostly by Utah coal, particularly from the mines jointly owned by IPA and Andalex. (source)
In 1990 the Intermountain Power Agency (IPA) acquired the Geneva coal mine in Horse Canyon in Carbon County from Kaiser Coal Company, along with the adjacent South Lease Coal Reserves. In 1990-91 IPA reclaimed major portions of the Geneva mine's surface mining facilities. In 1991 IPA erected a monument in Helper, Utah and dedicated it as a tribute to those men named on the monument and to the Utah Coal Industry. (source)
From ABB Group's web site (source):
The Intermountain Power Project (IPP) includes the Intermountain Generating Station, which consists of two, 750 MW generators and the transmission systems. The project was conceived in the early 1970s to fulfil the projected power and load diversification needs of a group of Utah and California utilities. By mid-1986, the project was providing power to 36 utilities in Utah, Nevada, and California. IPP participants include 23 municipal utilities, six rural cooperatives, and one investor owned utility in Utah and six municipal utilities in southern California.
IPP is owned by the Intermountain Power Agency (IPA). IPA appointed the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, as project manager in charge of design, construction, and operation of the project.
In October 2004, Canyon Fuel's Skyline Mine shut down, causing coal supply problems for IPP (source):
IPP scrambling for coal
Shutdown of Skyline Mine, other problems hurting coal production
By Dave Anderton (Deseret Morning News)
Falling production levels of Utah coal have created a desperate situation for the state's largest coal-fired power plant.
[photo caption] At Deer Creek Mine, Clair Christensen inspects the continuous miner, which rips 800 tons of coal from mountain walls in 30 minutes.
The Intermountain Power Project in Millard County — which sells nearly 75 percent of its generated electricity to California cities — is scrambling to meet stockpile requirements.
"The coal situation in Utah right now is very, very difficult," said Reed Searle, general manager of the Intermountain Power Agency. "Our coal pile surplus is way under what our guidance is. We are eating into that surplus, and thank God we had the surplus or we couldn't have run the plant."
According to a report released this week by the Utah Energy Office, coal production fell in 2003 for the second consecutive year to 23.1 million tons, down from 25.3 million tons a year earlier.
The mine sale price for Utah coal decreased to $16.64 per ton in 2003, compared to $18.47 in 2002. In 2003, total revenues fell below $400 million for the first time in 16 years.
Yet while prices and production levels may be falling, coal distribution to electric utilities is skyrocketing due to Utah's growing demand for power. Roughly 85 percent of Utah's coal in 2003 was delivered to electric utilities at home, across the nation or overseas. Ninety-three percent of all electricity generated in the state can be traced to the burning of coal.
"We own two of our mines, and neither one is producing anywhere near their budgeted production levels," Searle said. "We are not meeting our delivery requirements to others in the state of Utah. We're having trouble getting shipments via the railroad. For the first time in quite a while, we're taking truckloads of coal again."
The falling production levels can be traced to a number of reasons, including lower quality coal, the shutdown of the Skyline Mine in Emery County and dangerous gases that have shut down or delayed production in other mines.
Searle said IPP has historically used Utah coal to generate its electricity. Now the plant is having to import coal from surrounding states at higher prices.
[graphic] table depicting Utah's ranking as 13th largest producer of all states in U.S., with 23, 069,000 tons produced.
"I won't comment on the price of coal," Searle said. "If you look at 2004 data you will find an entirely differently story. The price is substantially over $20 (per ton)."
Dave Eskelsen, a spokesman for Utah Power parent company PacifiCorp, said he is unaware of any transportation constraints in coal reaching the company's three coal-fired plants.
"We don't take a whole lot of coal in Utah by rail," Eskelsen said. "It's not a big issue with us."
Jon Allred, a spokesman for the Utah Energy Office, said a bottleneck in the railroad system has created constraints across the West.
"Out-of-state users of Utah coal are having increasing difficulty dealing with coal quality," Allred said. "Power plants in California are reporting they are keeping fairly small amounts of coal on hand, that they're barely meeting reserve requirements."
In fact, Union Pacific can't hire enough people to handle an unprecedented increase in demand for service amid a surge in the economy and glut of Asian imports reaching the United States.
That compounds the problems for power plants like IPP, which rely on the railroad.
"We see a very serious coal shortage problem for a couple of years," Searle said. "We are very worried about our ability to get the quality and quantity of coal that is necessary."
Rail Operations
IPA operates several unit coal trains in Utah, along with a rail car repair facility in Springville, Utah. At the Springville facility, IPA uses an EMD SW1001 switcher to shuttle rail cars around and within the repair facility. During March 2007, IPP (AAR reporting mark IPPX) took delivery of at least 70 new rail cars, numbered as IPPX 1001-1070.
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