Trouble at ScottishPower's Hunter plant near Castle Dale in Emery County is expected to have little impact on Utah Power customers in the near term, but consumers could face a rate increase, perhaps next year.
The company, which acquired PacifiCorp last year, said Monday that a short in one of three generation units at the plant could result in losses of as much as $190 million if the unit is down the expected four to six months.
The outage will cost the company about $1 million a day at last week's prices.
The Utah unit is one of three at the 20-year-old, 1,200-megawatt plant and produces 5 percent of the total power from ScottishPower's PacifiCorp business.
As a result, the company will need to purchase more power on the costly open market.
"I don't think it means anything immediately for customers," Utah Power spokesman Dave Eskelsen said. "The obvious implication is higher purchased power costs down the line. We already were expecting higher purchased power costs and higher overall power costs next year, and this (plant trouble) virtually guarantees we will be approaching the utility commission for rate relief at some point, probably next year."
PacifiCorp is tracking its actual costs for power purchases in the open market through a deferred accounting procedure, but Eskelsen said it is difficult to predict the financial impact caused by the Utah plant's woes.