State legislators who spoke at a Washington County Republican Women meeting described a package of energy measures they said the Utah Legislature advanced this year, including a provision that gives the state an option to purchase the Intermountain Power Plant and a change in incentives to require battery storage alongside new wind and solar projects.

Senator Darren Owens, who spoke at the meeting, said the Intermountain Power Plant (IPP) produces about 1,900 megawatts and that the state “has the option to purchase that plant.” He framed the move as a way for Utah to decide how and when to wind down coal operations and to use the site as a bridge to other generation options, including nuclear.

Lawmakers described several related actions: reducing earlier incentives for solar and wind as the market matured, redirecting incentives toward battery storage (“firming”) so intermittent generation can supply power under peak demand, and adopting a change in state code meant to prevent the cost of new generation built for large industrial users from being shifted to existing ratepayers. Representative Paul Jack was cited by speakers as a leading House voice on energy policy.

Why it matters: legislators said the combination of state ownership options, storage requirements and incentives aims to expand available capacity for both existing residents and prospective large users such as data centers or AI facilities, which need guaranteed power. At the meeting, lawmakers also said the governor had hosted a nuclear summit and that industry interest is growing.

Supporting details: speakers described the IPP as roughly equivalent to statewide demand and said incentives had been adjusted because solar deployment had reached a point where new projects should include storage. One speaker said the Legislature is pursuing policies to make new energy development financially self-contained so current ratepayers will not shoulder the cost of building capacity for large new customers.

Discussion and next steps: legislators described the package as already advanced in the session and said industry would follow with new projects; they also said some regulatory and permitting steps remain. No vote or local implementation action was taken at the club meeting itself.