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Show Contract agreement signing due to assure independent power users of low-cost energy from Colorado By GARY R. BLODGETT BOUNTIFUL The city coun-i coun-i cil is expected to sign a contract within the next two weeks that will assure Bountiful Power and Light Company with low-cost non-firm energy from eastern Utah and western Colorado. Bountiful City Council agreed last week to sign a letter of intent to I the proposed agreement and the mayor and council members appeared to favor the program but asked for a "short time" to further study the proposal. If approved, Bountiful will join with nine other power-owned municipalities in a $17 million project pro-ject that will provide Bountiful with about 1 1 megawatts of surplus power. This amounts to about 20 percent of the total capacity of the project (54 megawatts), and Bountiful Boun-tiful will pay about 20 percent of the total cost of operation. Thus, Bountiful's share of the $17 million power line that will ex- Itend from Mona, Juab County, to Craig, Colo., is approximately $3.7 million, according to Carolyn McNeil, manager of Utah Associ-! Associ-! ated Municipal Power Systems t (UAMPS). Ms. McNeil, a former resident of Bountiful, said Bountiful would become be-come the third contributor to the system, behind St. George and Springville. Also considering joining join-ing the project are Logan, Murray, Payson, Lehi, Heber, Ephraim and Enterprise. When completed in February 1990, the system would allow the participating cities to tap into surplus sur-plus Colorado power. Ms. McNeil told the council that UAMPS will purchase excess power from Craig (Colo.) and transmit it across a line that extends into Bonanza and Mona, Utah, where the line would tie in with Utah Power and Light Company lines to northern Utah and southern Idaho. . "The surplus power (54 megawatts) mega-watts) can be purchased for about $23 million. A new transmission line from Bonanza, Utah, to Craig, Colo., a distance of just over 100 miles, will cost an estimated !5 million," mil-lion," said Ms. McNeil. . Cliff Michaelis assured the council coun-cil that purchase of the proposed power source would not facilitate a rate increase to Bountiful customers custom-ers "because the project can be funded without municipal bonding." He said the project could be funded through monthly electric fund cash flow of approximately $487,700 a year. "There would be only one period of time (for about eight months) during which the money may have to be borrowed from the city coffers," said Mr. Michaelis. The council agreed that there would be money available from the city fund for that period of time. Mr. Michaelis said there is a lot of surplus power in that (Colorado) area which can be purchased and delivered to participating cities for about three cents per kilowatt hour based on 70 percent capacity. "I can see a lot of flexibility with the accessibility of this future power," pow-er," said Mr. Michaelis. "It will be low-cost power that will be available avail-able to the city when it is needed most." He emphasized, that this power source is needed even though the city will be buying large blocks of power from the Northwest. The Colorado source will also be less costly than Bountiful's own diesel-generated diesel-generated power that is used during dur-ing peak hours. Ms. McNeil noted that about 1 ,600 megawatts of surplus power is generated annually by utilities in the Colorado area. Surplus power to serve Utah entities will come primarily from the Platte River Power Authority, Colorado Ute and Tri-State Generation Assn., and from oil, coal and hydroelectric hydro-electric power. Mr. Michaelis said previous low-cost low-cost power from the Colorado River Riv-er Storage Project (CRSP) cost ' Bountiful about six cents per kilowatt kilo-watt hour. "Colorado's surplus power will be about one-half that cost," he said. |