Adding a third unit to the Intermountain Power Project remains the subject of study, despite Gov. Mike Leavitt saying this week that other power-generation projects are more likely.
During an address to the Western Coal Council, Leavitt said two other projects — adding 80 megawatts to Deseret Generation & Transmission Cooperative's Bonanza Power Plant and adding another unit to PacifiCorp's Hunter power plant — are likely to be built.
The governor said that the scaling-down of the Bonanza project from an original concept of 400 megawatts and perhaps hesitancy from Los Angeles officials involved in the IPP makes the Hunter expansion most likely.
Los Angeles, which uses about 1,100 megawatts of IPP's 1,630-megawatt capacity, is in the midst of a mayoral transition. Outgoing Mayor Richard Riordan visited Utah in early March to check on the possibility of adding the third IPP unit, but Leavitt said last week that Riordan at the time "may not have had full backing of his council, and I haven't heard from them since, so that may not be the hottest way out there to go about things."
Reed Searle, general manager of the Intermountain Power Agency, which oversees the two-unit plant near Delta, concurred with Leavitt that Riordan may not have had full support. Los Angeles' resource plans have no new coal-fired generation plants during the next 10 years, he said.
"There's no question the mayor was a little bit ahead of others in the city," Searle said.
More important than even the mayor is the stance of the general manager of the Los Angeles Water and Power Department. The former GM did not support the IPP expansion project, but the acting GM is a strong proponent of coal-fired generation, according to Searle.
The Intermountain Power Agency is funding a pair of studies that will help it determine the conceptual and financial scope of the third-unit project. Both are expected to be finished by mid-month.
Searle agreed that the more immediate power needs of PacifiCorp and Deseret's rural cooperatives make their generation expansion plans "very likely to be built." But because Los Angeles has enough power for its needs, the agency wants to be sure it has long-term power contracts in place before construction would start on a third IPP unit.
Los Angeles and five other California cities get three-fourths of IPP's current generation, although several Utah municipalities and electric cooperatives also get power from the plant. But Searle and Los Angeles officials have said third-unit power rights likely would be structured to have Utahns getting most of its generation.
Whatever power Los Angeles would get from the new unit likely would be sold to California for use elsewhere in the state until L.A.'s power needs force it to "call back" the excess generation, Searle said.
Leavitt was asked during the coal council meeting if the IPP was essentially a way for California to transfer power-generation pollution to Utah. He responded by saying that IPP expansion is a way to meet Utah's power needs while also contributing to a regional power solution.
"But I don't think there's a resistance or resentment," Leavitt said, "as long as we are being treated fairly."
E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com