Will Montana's Thompson River Cogen Power Plant Operate Again?

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, TX)--A Thompson River Power (TRP) operations representative said the company is preparing the Thompson River cogen power plant to resume operation in August. This follows a lengthy ongoing review of this facility, which recently placed the Montana Environmental Board and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality in the limelight.

Last November, Assistant Attorney General Katherine Orr was appointed special examiner of the Thompson River cogen project by the Montana Department of Justice. Orr found that the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) failed to do an adequate review of the technology for controlling air pollution and also failed to limit the operational time frames and type of coal that could be burned in the facility's aged boiler system. Orr's recommendation was for the MDEQ to remand the facilities permit. As recommended by Orr, the Montana Environmental Board held a hearing on May 30, finding that the MDEQ failed to require the facility owners to provide best available technology for emissions controls during start-up and shut-down of the facility. The MDEQ followed the recommendations and has required the current owners of the facility to do an analysis of the best available technology for start-up and shut-down processes. The MDEQ has remanded a portion of the permit until this analysis proves that the facility is able to operate within its original permitted requirements.

To date, the facility and the MDEQ are working together, but the goal has not yet been reached, and the permit process still requires a public comment period. But TRP, a subsidiary of Wayzata Investment Partners (Wayzata, Minnesota), has hired Vista Energy LP (Las Vegas, Nevada) to run the required environmental analysis and restart the facility. TRP has also signed a contract with Precision Energy Services Incorporated (PES) (Hayden, Idaho) to operate the facility. PES is the original contractor that installed the existing 16.5-megawatt Elliot steam turbine generator in 2005.

Before closing the facility's doors in September 2005, the owners of the Thompson River plant acquired several hundred violations totaling approximately $1.84 million before closing its doors in September 2005. Gov. Brian Schweitzer has asked the state attorney general's office to investigate whether the prior owners of the facility provided fraudulent information to MDEQ.

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