Kyle Roadman, EPUD General Manager
Hello Emerald Customer-Owners,
Last week our Board of Directors passed Resolution 2023-19, Adopting a New Strategic Direction for the Short Mountain Power Plant. This action represents an exciting step forward in expanding this source of local, renewable power generation.
For more than 30 years, we’ve used the landfill gas from Short Mountain to generate 4-5% of our total power supply needs. In addition to providing a source of low cost energy for our customers, this project also prevents large amounts of greenhouse gas from escaping into the atmosphere.
Short Mountain is a true legacy project for our utility, and we’ve been working for many years to determine what role it will play in our power supply future. After 30 years, the original engines are showing their age. At the same time, demand on our system has grown and we need much more capacity than they can provide.
Markets for natural gas have also changed significantly over the past 5-10 years. Many landfills have moved away from power generation toward producing “Renewable Natural Gas” for use in transportation and wholesale pipeline operations. We looked hard at this option alongside expanded power generation alternatives.
Although selling the gas into different markets is intriguing, at the end of the day power generation is core to our business. With sky-high wholesale power prices and growing demand on our system, staff ultimately recommended expanding our power generation and the Board agreed.
The Resolution passed by the Board instructs staff to begin moving down the road of a full plant rebuild at Short Mountain. We’ll be able to replace our four current engines with three more efficient models that will provide approximately 1.5 times the output. We’ll also give strong consideration to adding a storage resource to further expand capacity during times of peak customer demand.
What comes next?
This will be a major project for our utility and we’re working to determine the internal and external resources necessary to carry it out. We hope to select an engineering partner by the end of the year to help us move through the procurement and construction phases in 2024 and 2025. We’re also optimistic we’ll be able to leverage current federal incentives to make this a very cost effective resource for our customers.
Look for more news soon on this exciting project and please reach out with any questions. Thanks as always for supporting Emerald PUD!
Please stay safe,
