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Show Agreement reached to construct new hydro-electric plant By GARY R. BLODGETT BOUNTIFUL Finalization of a five-party agreement for construction of a hydro-electric power plant on the Ogden River was approved last Wednesday night by the Bountiful City Council. By unanimous vote, the council approved the joining of Utah Power and Light Company with four other entities in the proposed hydroelectric hydro-electric plant just downstream from Pineview Reservoir. UP&L will enter into the contract with Bountiful City, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Reclama-tion and two Ogden River water users' associations. associa-tions. It will be a Bountiful City-owned plant, but the other agencies were needed in the agreement agree-ment because of prior ownership of water and power rights downstream. The farmers (water-users' associations) have owned priority water rights for many years. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has owned the federal fed-eral property in the area of the plant, and UP&L has water rights to a power-generation plant (Pioneer Plant) downstream, Clifford Michaelis, manager of Bountiful Power and Light Department, Depart-ment, explained to the council. When completed, the hydro-electric power plant will generate a maximum of 1,800 kilowatts which will be transmitted to Bountiful over existing Utah Power and Light Company I transmission lines. Bid for construction of the plant was approved approv-ed last Wednesday for Hydro West Corporation of Bellevue, Wash., who submitted a low bid of $1,269,000, about $166,000 below the engineer's engi-neer's estimate. The plant will be constructed about 700 feet below the dam of Pineview Reservoir. It will include about 5 12 miles of pipeline. Start-up date is set for the spring of 199 1 . Michaelis explained that financing of the plant's construction will be paid for through power revenues and reserve funds in the power department without increased taxation or a raise in power rates. Meanwhile, a rebuilt 138-kv transformer is on order and will be ready for installation soon at the city-owned Parrish Lane substation. The rebuilt transformer, which weighs about 240,000 pounds, will cost Bountiful $357,000, compared to a new transformer of the same size I costing between $800,000 and $1 million. "This transformer will be every bit as good as a new one, and will actually have a better I guarantee than a new unit said Michaelis, f who explained that power department officials have been searching four years for a used transformer of this capability. He said it will increase the power capability to meet power demands of the city for at least the next 25 years. |