Western Area Power Administration, DOE.
Notice of final allocation of Olmsted Powerplant Replacement Project.
Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) Colorado River Storage Project (CRSP) Management Center, a Federal power marketing administration within the Department of Energy, announces its Olmsted Powerplant Replacement Project (Olmsted) Final Allocation of Energy. The Final 2018 Olmsted Power Marketing Plan and Call for Applications was published on October 11, 2017, and set forth that an application for an allocation of energy from Olmsted was due by December 11, 2017. WAPA reviewed and considered the applications received and published the Proposed Allocations in the
The final allocations will be effective on October 5, 2018.
Information regarding the Final Allocation of Olmsted Power Replacement Project, including comments, letters, and other supporting documents, is available for public inspection and copying at the CRSP Management Center, Western Area Power Administration, 299 South Main Street, Suite 200, Salt Lake City, Utah. Public comments and related information may be accessed at
Mr. Brent Osiek, Vice President of Power Marketing for CRSP, (801) 524–5495; or Mr. Lyle Johnson, Public Utilities Specialist, (801) 524–5585. Written requests for information should be sent to Western Area Power Administration, CRSP Management Center, 299 South Main Street, Suite 200, Salt Lake City, UT 84111; faxed to (801) 524–5017; or emailed to:
The United States acquired the Olmsted Powerplant in 1990 through condemnation proceedings in order to secure the water rights associated with the Olmsted Powerplant deemed essential to the Central Utah Project (CUP). The CUP is a participating project of the Colorado River Storage Project. As part of the condemnation proceedings, PacifiCorp continued Olmsted operations until 2015; after that time, the operation of the facility became the responsibility of the Department of the Interior.
The existing Olmsted Powerplant greatly exceeded its operational life, and a replacement facility was needed for the generation of power and the preservation of associated non-consumptive water rights. On February 4, 2015, the Implementation Agreement (Agreement) for Olmsted was signed by Central Utah Water Conservancy District (District); the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation; and WAPA (Participants). The Agreement sets forth the responsibilities of the Participants and identifies funding of Olmsted. The District will construct, operate, maintain, and replace the Olmsted Powerplant and incidental facilities in connection with CUP operations including power generation.
WAPA is responsible for marketing the Olmsted energy, which is anticipated to be available in the late summer or early fall of 2018. Power production will be incidental to the delivery of water and will only be available when water is present. Therefore, only energy, without capacity, will be available for marketing. It is expected that the annual energy production from Olmsted will average around 27,000,000 kilowatthours per year. The Final 2018 Olmsted Power Marketing Plan and Call for Applications was published in the
WAPA received numerous comments about its Olmsted final allocation of energy during the comment period. WAPA reviewed and considered all comments received, and this section summarizes and responds to those comments. For brevity, when it was possible to do so without affecting the meaning of the statements, the public comments below were paraphrased.
Pursuant to the Final Power Marketing Criteria, allocations of energy from Olmsted were made based on a percentage of annual generation rather than fixed quantities of energy. Olmsted is a “take all, pay all” project; the annual revenue requirement does not depend on the amount of energy available each year. Customers with an allocation will receive a share of the energy and will annually pay a proportional share of the operation, maintenance, and replacement expenses in 12 monthly installments.
Applications were received from four entities representing a total of 14 eligible applicants. In considering the Power Marketing Criteria, priority was given to the District due to its role in the construction, operation, maintenance, and replacement of Olmsted. The District will receive 30 percent of Olmsted's annual generation.
Olmsted will be electrically interconnected to Provo's distribution and transmission facilities. Provo is a participant of UMPA, a joint-action agency responsible for supplying the wholesale power needs to Provo and other municipal electric utilities in the area. UMPA, a long-term power customer of WAPA, has agreed to accept all Olmsted energy as it is generated and, under a scheduling and displacement agreement with WAPA, provide Olmsted customers with their respective Olmsted allocation amounts from a portion of UMPA's allocation of SLCA/IP resources, which is also marketed by WAPA. This arrangement will allow the Olmsted recipients more flexibility since it will be easier to schedule this SLCA/IP resource, which is essentially exchanged for Olmsted generation and it allows the use of existing scheduling and transmission wheeling arrangements. In consideration for providing these arrangements and the overall savings it is anticipated to generate, UMPA will receive a 30 percent allocation of Olmsted generation.
After consideration of the allocations to the District and UMPA, WAPA determined it would use the remaining Olmsted energy to increase the allocations of those applicants that have the lowest percentages of their current loads served by Federal power. Four of the applicants receive less than 10 percent of their energy resources from Federal power. All of the other applicants currently receive over 20 percent of their energy requirements from Federal allocations. Therefore, WAPA awarded 10 percent of the Olmsted generation to the four applicants receiving less than 10 percent of their energy from Federal sources. The following table shows the final allocation percentages of the annual energy production of Olmsted:
With the exception of UMPA, all of the recipients receive scheduling and delivery services for their allocations of Federal power from Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS) under SLCA/IP Contract No. 87–SLC–0037. Since Olmsted energy will be delivered by means of transmission and scheduling arrangements existing for Contract No. 87–SLC–0037 with UAMPS, the allocations to these recipients may be handled in a similar manner. WAPA plans to enter into contracts with customers after publication of this
Documents developed or retained by WAPA during this public process will be available, by appointment, for inspection and copying at the CRSP Management Center, 299 South Main Street, Suite 200, Salt Lake City, Utah. The comments received during the 30-day comment period have been posted to WAPA's website at the following address:
In compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321–4347), the Council on Environmental Quality Regulations (40 CFR parts 1500–1508), and DOE NEPA Regulations (10 CFR part 1021), WAPA issued a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) on January 13, 2017. The FONSI and other NEPA compliance documentation may be found at
The Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980 (RFA), 5 U.S.C. 601,
WAPA has an exemption from centralized regulatory review under Executive Order 12866; accordingly, no clearance of this