Power plant is key point in renewable energy sources

The debate over a big coal-fired power plant proposed near Gerlach is widening to include discussion as well about the future of geothermal,wind and solar power in the region.

One advocate of renewal resources, in fact, calls the issue one of the key turning points in the history of geothermal and wind power in northern Nevada.

The focus of contention is the Pacific DC Intertie, an 846- mile transmission line that slices across western Nevada on its path from the Columbia River to Southern California.

Sempra Energy, the San Diego-based company that's proposed the 1,450-megawatt plant near Gerlach,wants to ship power to Southern California over currently unused capacity on the line.

Developers of renewable projects have their eyes on that same unused capacity and fear that Sempra's plan could leave them without the ability to sell the power they create.

"There really is no other way to market this power," says Jon Wellinghoff, a lawyer who handles energy issues for the firm of Beckley Singleton in Las Vegas."This is a hugely critical decision for the development of geothermal and wind in northern Nevada."

But backers of the coal-fired plant including some folks who are developing renewable resources on their own say daunting financial and technical issues would keep small operators from tapping into the line in any case.

The line has the capacity to transport 3,100 megawatts of power a megawatt is enough power to serve about 300 Nevada households and Sempra believes that at least 1,650 megawatts of capacity are available.

The utility has requested permission from the operator of the line, the Los Angeles Department ofWater and Power, to tap into the line so it can transport power from Gerlach to Southern California.

Along with the 1,450 megawatts of power generated by its own plant, Sempra wants to devote 200 megawatts of capacity to carry power produced by geothermal,wind and solar facilities.

That 200-megawatt block, renewables backers say, isn't enough.And without access to more capacity on the Pacific DC Intertie, they worry that they'll be unable to ship power to fast-growing markets around Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

More painful, developers of renewablepower projects note that utilities in California and Nevada alike are mandated to buy steadily increasing amounts of power from renewable sources.

Shuman Moore, a Reno-based consultant and developer of geothermal projects, says that geothermal and wind plants on the drawing board in northern Nevada could generate at least 1,200 to 1,300 megawatts more than six times the amount of capacity that would be available on the Pacific DC Intertie if the Sempra plan is approved.

And because no power lines directly link the abundant geothermal resources of northern Nevada to the fast-growing population of Las Vegas, Shuman says geothermal developers figure they'll need to ship power to Southern California, then back east to Clark County.

Sempra officials raise financial and technical questions about the argument that the line's capacity should be kept open for renewable- energy sources.

Building the transmission lines to get power from far-flung geothermal sites and wind farms across northern Nevada could be a $1 billion proposition, says Marty Swartz, Sempra's project developer for the plant near Gerlach.

Says Chris Collins, himself a developer of renewable projects in the area,"The cost is prohibitive because renewables are expensive already." But it makes more sense, Swartz says, for developers of renewable projects in the immediate area of Gerlach to piggyback with Sempra, allowing the utility giant to pick up most of the cost of transmission facilities.

Sempra's engineers also raise technical questions about the ability of small plants that don't generate power all the time after all, the wind blows only intermittently, even at Gerlach to feed power into the big transmission line.

They say that power from smaller plants may be able to get onto the line only with the added push of the production from a big plant.

A study commissioned by Vulcan Power, a geothermal developer based at Bend, Ore., agrees that use of the Pacific DC Intertie doesn't make economic sense for relatively small amounts of power.

But the study by Winnipeg-based Electranix Corp.

found that technical and economic issues alike could be handled if developers of renewable projects bring 500 megawatts or more to the transmission line.