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Show UP&L LOOKS AT GEOTHERMAL POWER FUTURE John Anderson, vice president, Utah Power & Light Co., recently re-cently released a position statement state-ment on gecthermal energy that has been issued by WEST Associates, As-sociates, a group of 23 investor-owned investor-owned and publicly-owned electric elec-tric utilities operating in the western part of the United States. UP&L Co. is a member of WEST Associates. The WEST Associates geo-thermal geo-thermal position statement points out that natural hot springs have been used for centuries cen-turies for heatirg purposes. In the U.S., geothermal energy was first used commercially to produce electricity some 13 year ago. Due to increasing national concern over the availability avail-ability of future energy resources, re-sources, members of WEST Associates As-sociates have become mere actively ac-tively involved in efforts to evaluate geothermal energy and in planning to use it when it can be proved to be reliable, economical and environmentally acceptable. In conjunction with the WEST position statement on geothermal geother-mal generation, Mr. Anderson said UP&L has already taken steps investigating the possibility possibil-ity of geothermal generation in Utah. Letters of inte.t have been signed between Utah Power Pow-er & Light and two firms Geothermal - Kinetics System Corp. and Thermal Power Co. Continued on Page Four HERE'S MORE ABOUT UP&L (Continued from Page One) of Utah, a Milford based firm. If commercial steam deposits are found in Utah, Mr. Anderson Ander-son said, developments of small geothermal plants might be possible by the 1980's. Te.t wells are reportedly planned by Thermal Ther-mal Power Co! of Utah in the Millord area this year. However further exploration must continue before drilling of wells can be considered, Mr. Anderson explained, and if a geothermal steam supply is found, data must be collected and evaluated before construction construc-tion of the plant itself. The prospect for geothermal energy appears promising, Mr. Anderson said, but drilling is the only way to prove this resource a..d then, at., best it would be a supplemental resource to our conventional coal-fired generation. genera-tion. ..;' ' Given reasonable economic and regulatory incentives, they are confident that conventional geothermal resources can be explored ex-plored and developed by industry indus-try with existing know-how. The WEST member utilities will continue- to encourage exploration explora-tion and. development of geothermal geo-thermal energy as a means for generating electric power. But they expect it will probably be ten years or more before any .new geothermal resources found can be developed as a competitive competi-tive alternative contributing to base load electric power supply. |