Wyoming's Massive Energy Consumption Drives $24 Billion in Power Projects

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Wyoming only narrowly trailed Louisiana in energy consumption per capita in 2016, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). While this statistic is largely due to an industrial sector that is as large as the population is small, the Equality State boasts some of the nation's most fertile ground for transmission and wind-energy projects. Industrial Info is tracking nearly $24 billion in active Power Industry projects in Wyoming, the bulk of which is attributed to Carbon County, which borders Colorado.

Wyoming consumed 860 million British thermal units of energy in 2016, just behind Louisiana's 897 million.

Click on the image at right for a graph detailing Wyoming's active Power Industry projects, by industrial sector.

One of the largest and most far-reaching projects in the Rocky Mountain and West Coast regions is the Energy Gateway Transmission Expansion, which is designed to add roughly 2,000 miles of new transmission lines across multiple states and update existing properties. Two of the most important segments are set for Wyoming: the Gateway South Transmission Line, which would run about 400 miles from the planned Aeolus Substation in southeastern Wyoming into the Clover Substation near Mona, Utah, and the Gateway West Transmission Line, which would run about 1,000 miles from Glenrock, Wyoming, to an area near Melba, Idaho.

Rocky Mountain Power, the subsidiary of utility PacifiCorp (Portland, Oregon) that delivers electricity to customers in Utah, Wyoming and Idaho, is overseeing the project in a joint venture with Idaho Power Company, a subsidiary of Idacorp Incorporated (Boise, Idaho). The Gateway South segment is itself divided into two parts: the estimated $675 million line from the Aeolus Substation in Medicine Bow, Wyoming, to the Clover Substation near Mona, Utah, and the estimated $337.5 million connecting line to the Creston Substation in Wyoming. For more information, see Industrial Info's project reports on the 400-mile line and the connecting line.

The Gateway West segment has three major parts in Wyoming:

• the estimated $325 million line from the Aeolus Substation in Medicine Bow to the proposed Anticline Substation in Point of Rocks, Wyoming, which would run about 140 miles; see project report
• the estimated $371.3 million line from the Anticline Substation to the Populus Substation in Downey, Idaho, which would run just less than 200 miles; see project report
• the estimated $292.6 million line from the Jim Bridger Substation near Point of Rocks, Wyoming, to the Populus Substation, which would run just more than 190 miles; see project report

PacificCorp and its associates continue to seek permits for each part of the Energy Gateway Transmission Expansion. The project received a boost this week when Carbon County commissioners granted a conditional use permit for the Gateway West line segments after certain provisions were met, including environmental protection measures and a certificate of public convenience and necessity from the Wyoming Public Service Commission, according to the Rawlins Times. Construction on Gateway West is currently expected to begin in early 2020, while Gateway East is expected to begin in mid-2022.

The estimated $32.1 million Anticline Substation is slated to begin construction next summer, while the estimated $45 million Jim Bridger Substation expansion and the estimated $29.3 million Shirley Basin Substation expansion in Medicine Bow are expected to begin in the first quarter of 2020. For more information, see Industrial Info's project reports on the Anticline, Jim Bridger and Shirley Basin substations.

Wyoming's Renewable Market has Wind in its Sails
More than half of the roughly $24 billion in total investment value is attributed to wind-energy projects. The largest is Invenergy LLC's (Chicago, Illinois) $800 million Cedar Springs Windfarm in Douglas, which is currently designed to generate 400 megawatts (MW) from 161 turbines. Rocky Mountain Power plants to connect the windfarm with the first segment of Gateway West as part of its Energy Vision 2020 Plan, which is designed to add 1,100 MW of new wind power, according to the Gillette News Record. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

The Cedar Springs Windfarm joins two others that are set to kick off next year and wrap up in 2020: Enyo Renewable Energy's (Salt Lake City, Utah) $300 million Roundhouse Windfarm in Cheyenne, which is designed to generate 150 MW from 75 turbines, and PacifiCorp's $220 million addition to its McFadden Windfarm in Rock River, which is designed to generate 110 MW from 44 turbines. All three projects are in their early planning phases, where plenty of factors could change or eliminate the expected spending. For more information, see Industrial Info's reports on the Roundhouse and McFadden projects.

Despite its abundance of energy projects, Wyoming has faced significant economic challenges in the past decade due to the decline of coal-fired power. According to the EIA, coal production in Wyoming far exceeds any other U.S. state, at more than 297 million short tons in 2016; the second-highest state, West Virginia, came in just shy of 80 million short tons for the same year. In the past two years, the state has seen some uplift from coal exports, particularly to China, but as those exports level off in the coming year (as the EIA predicts) the Equality State will continue to reckon with the increasing dominance of natural gas.

Wyoming's coal-energy producers also must continue to address emission standards. Basin Electric Power Cooperative (Bismark, North Dakota) is at work on a $180 million retrofit at its Laramie River Power Station in Wheatland that is expected to reduce nitrous oxide emissions through the construction and installation of a selective catalytic reduction unit onto an opposed-fired, dry-bottom boiler. The project kicked off in early 2017 and is expected to wrap up in the summer of 2019. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

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