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Western announces new Desert Southwest regional manager

Administrator Tim Meeks announced today his selection of Darrick Moe as the new Desert Southwest regional manager for Western Area Power Administration. Moe will start his appointment as manager of DSW—one of Western’s four regions—on Jan. 4. Read the news release or see Moe’s bio for more information.

Western has released the draft of the Wind and Hydropower Feasibility Study. The study was mandated by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to determine the cost and feasibility of developing a demonstration project that uses wind energy generated on Indian tribal lands to supply firming power to Western, supplementing Federal hydropower generated on the Missouri river to meet Western’s contractual obligations. Comments will be accepted until Feb. 13.

Request for Interest for the Purchase of Renewable Energy Products

Western seeks interest from any supplier regarding the long-term purchase of renewable energy to supplement any one or more of, or possibly combinations of, four regions. The request for interest states all available points of delivery are located within the Western Interconnection. The Upper Great Plains Region is not seeking energy delivered within the Eastern Interconnection at this time. Western prefers renewable energy with RECs, but will entertain offsets on price for renewable energy without RECs. Delivery points and approximate amounts of energy desired for each region are listed in the RFI.

Western and Basin Electric Power Cooperative, a UGP customer, agreed Nov. 19 to a precedent-setting purchase of wind power between the two organizations—just one more way the two utilities are showing their commitment to renewable energy in the West.

The three-year contract provides for Western to purchase the output from an existing 50-megawatt wind farm. The purchase of wind energy, capacity and renewable attributes from Basin Electric’s existing wind generation will help Western offset the effects of prolonged drought in the Missouri River Basin, the area from which both organizations market and deliver power. The short-term contract is effective from Jan. 1, 2010, until Dec. 31, 2012. Renewable attributes refer to the intangible environmental benefits associated with the generation of one megawatt-hour of electric energy by a renewable resource.

In late August 2008, the Wyoming-Colorado Intertie project announced the successful results of its open season capacity auction for firm transmission rights for a proposed, new 345-kV line that would link the Front Range of Colorado with the wind-rich high plains of eastern Wyoming. The remaining unsold capacity, 265 MW, is now being made available on an application basis in conformity with the WCI Open Access Transmission Tariff that is posted on the WCI website.

To help address a growing number of proposed wind energy projects in the Upper Great Plains, Western and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will prepare a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement to evaluate the environmental, social and economic impacts of wind energy development in Western's Upper Great Plains Region and on the Service's grassland and wetland easements in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana. Public scoping meetings are set for Sept. 30 in Sioux Falls, S.D.; Oct. 1 in Bismarck, N.D.; and Oct. 2 in Billings, Mont.