Logan staff present solar-and-storage feasibility study; council gives informal approval

Light and Power Director Mark Montgomery presented a feasibility study July 15 that examined local and regional options to add at least 15 megawatts of carbon‑free capacity for Logan City, including distributed rooftop solar, utility‑scale purchases, battery storage at substations and floating panels on the city’s sewer lagoons. The report estimated local needs, described current contracted legacy resources and recent projects that supply Logan, and identified near‑term steps such as Rocky Mountain Power feasibility studies and site evaluations.

Why it matters: Logan is facing higher peak demand in summer months and a changing regional market for renewables. Council members framed the study as informational while asking staff to return with tighter cost estimates on batteries, likely sites and how local investments would affect future purchases and market exposure.

Montgomery told the council that Logan’s current peak demand this summer reached about 97 megawatts and that the city’s average shoulder‑month base load runs about 60–65 megawatts. “If everybody starts turning on an AC and running whatever, we hit 97 megawatts,” Montgomery said during the presentation. He explained the difference between capacity (megawatts) and energy (megawatt‑hours) and reviewed potential projects including loans of 1.8 megawatts from a heat‑recovery facility, about 5–6 megawatts from nearby solar, and pipeline projects in geothermal and wind that could add several megawatts if they reach commercial operation.

Key details from the study: Montgomery said the city could place about 8 megawatts of solar at the sewer lagoons without immediate electrical upgrades; larger arrays would require building a new substation, which he estimated at roughly $2 million. He described battery storage packages as commonly sized to provide about four hours of discharge and suggested substations with available land (Substation 7 and the 18th South site) as likely battery locations. He also said a Rocky Mountain Power feasibility or cluster study typically costs “not more than 3 or 4 months” and that an initial feasibility fee for a generation interconnect in a recent case was on the order of $5,000–$10,000.

Council response and next steps: Council members pressed for more precise cost estimates for battery storage (total cost, space needs and expected megawatt/megawatt‑hour capacity), and whether behind‑the‑meter installations would avoid lengthy transmission studies. Montgomery advised that batteries behind the meter do not require transmission studies but that utility‑scale interconnections do. No formal vote was taken; councilmembers gave the report an informal acceptance. Montgomery said he would post the full study to the city website and asked staff to distribute it to the Renewable Energy Stakeholder Advisory Board (RESAB).