rocky mountain power

70% of Midway residents polled wish to have new large transmission lines buried underground, and over half a million dollars have been raised to fund that effort. Despite that support, The lines could end up overhead due to high costs and a large power companies reported deadline.

The Utah Utility Facility Review Board held their initial hearing regarding Rocky Mountain Power’s petition against Midway City on Tuesday.

Rocky Mountain Power has agreed to provide Midway with multiple bids for the cost to bury transmission lines underground. Once Midway receives the bid, they’ll have two weeks to make a final decision. The power company is taking more steps to ensure that deadline remains firm.

The choice to place high voltage transmission lines overhead or underground through Midway is getting close to a decision point. Rocky Mountain Power hopes to have bids to place lines underground by the end of February, leaving Midway about a month to finalize funding to bury the lines.

Summit County had a busy year in 2019.   County Manager Tom Fisher said he could talk about 20 accomplishments or projects that kept him busy.       

During the past year, the county approved a new Mental Health Services contract, with the University of Utah succeeding Valley Mental Health—an effort carried off by Council Members, their Health Department and citizens.     

Summit County and Park City are among a growing number of Utah communities who have indicated they want to participate in the Community Renewable Energy Program with Rocky Mountain Power.

The county’s Sustainability Coordinator, Lisa Yoder, visited KPCW to give us an indication of what comes next.

Under the program, communities can indicate that they want to obtain their electricity from 100 percent renewable sources by at least 2030.

Plans for a schedule power outage in Summit Park on Tuesday were cancelled.

Rocky Mountain Power had scheduled the outage for Tuesday in order to do some needed maintenance in the area. Despite low temperatures predicted for the area the power company had planned to follow through with the outage up until early Tuesday morning. At that time, Summit Park residents received this phone message.

Despite complaints, a power outage scheduled for most of Tuesday will go on as planned.

Rocky Mountain Power has scheduled the outage in Summit Park area from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm on Tuesday, the 29th.

Although residents were noticed about the outage via e-mail, phone call or mailers, many are upset with the timing.

The national weather service has issued a winter weather advisory for Tuesday with one to four inches of snow likely and temperatures in the 20’s.

The next two or three months will be important for Summit County’s plan to sign a Renewable Energy Services Contract with Rocky Mountain Power.     County Council Member Glenn Wright talked to KPCW following Council’s discussion on Wednesday.

The county aims to achieve a net 100 percent renewable-energy standard for their government operations by 2032.    To that end, they’re looking at a contract to have Rocky Mountain Power deliver electricity from renewable sources..    After an RFP process, a solar facility to be built near Tooele has been selected as the provider.

Two hundred and sixty-three customers in the Thaynes Canyon neighborhood will have power shut off on Wednesday beginning at 5 PM. It will be off for 12 full hours with the plan to have it back on by 5 AM on Thursday.

There are three urgent repairs that Rocky Mountain Power is planning for Wednesday. The Rocky Mountain Power Public Information Officer Tiffany Erickson says the neighborhood had an extended power outage a couple of weeks ago which was due to several problems with the equipment.

Heber Light and Power and Rocky Mountain Power’s permit for a transmission line project that will connect power from the Jordanelle Dam to the Midway was continued last week by the Wasatch Planning Commission. One major consideration is whether to place those transmission lines underground or overhead. 

The proposed plan will result in transmission poles that will be between 65 to 95 feet. In order to lower the overall height of the poles, the power companies are burying the distribution and communication lines where possible.

Wasatch County Planning Commission spent four hours at their June 4th meeting discussing a request from Heber Light and Power and Rocky Mountain Power for a conditional use permit to rebuild and extend a transmission line and build a 10-acre substation. In the end the item was continued to the commissions July 11th meeting to allow more discussion and information regarding the substation.

Around 50 people attended the commission meeting, most in the audience were citizens opposed to the plans.

Park City Mayor Andy Beerman earlier this year announced a goal of adding 100 electric vehicle chargers to town. Rocky Mountain Power aided in forwarding that goal Friday, when they presented a check to the mayor. 

Beerman addressed a crowd of about 20 people outside the Park City Library, saying it’s an exciting time to be talking about climate.

The Summit County Council had a fairly routine meeting Wednesday, and the longest discussion was about the prospective renewal of a Franchise Agreement with Rocky Mountain Power.

Council member Chris Robinson had several questions on the details of the agreement—but he told KPCW it’s been decades since the deal was reviewed.

The council did not come to a decision about the agreement, which allows the power company to use the county right-of-way. Robinson said they will take up the item again in a couple of weeks.

Heber Light and Power Company and Rocky Mountain Power return to the Wasatch Planning Commission on Thursday to request a Conditional Use Permit for the construction of the Jordanelle-Midway Transmission Line continuation through the Heber Valley. A citizens group known as VOLT wants people to know about the special work session and to encourage citizens to show up at the planning meeting. Last December, the Planning Commission asked the applicants to return with more information including studies evaluating the costs of burying some of the lines. Carolyn Murray has this: