Utility staff reports five-year power purchase, AMI rollout and Grapevine transmission progress

Staff member (utility staff) told the board that the utility secured a multiyear power purchase agreement intended to provide price stability and outlined multiple infrastructure and metering upgrades that are under way.

The five-year purchase begins in April 2025 and runs through October 2029, Staff member said, adding that the contract includes several product types that better match the utility’s load shape. “We were able to secure a fairly long term power purchase from starting in April 25 going through what is that October of 20 29 of different amounts,” Staff member said. He described the purchase as a blended price “just a little over $80” for the five-year period.

The purchase includes low-load-hour, high-load-hour, around-the-clock and “Superpeak” products. Staff member said obtaining the Superpeak product and seven-day high-load coverage better matches the primarily residential and commercial load and should blunt price swings in hot or cold weather.

Why it matters: the utility faces regional market volatility tied to hydro and other West-wide resources, and the purchase is intended to reduce exposure to short-term spikes that previously drove day-ahead prices sharply higher.

In other system updates, staff reported work on the Grapevine transmission and substation projects, where major equipment deliveries and site work are timing drivers. Staff member said a battery charger shipment arrived at the city’s facility in error and will be moved to the plant, relay panels have been awarded, steel pole bids are under review and foundation bids for transformer pads are expected next month. “Virginia transformer indicated we should expect it late June, early July,” Staff member said, noting that having the pad ready is necessary because the transformer needs to be set once it arrives.

Staff also described recent field work that improved local distribution reliability: conduits were installed across Red Hills Parkway near Green Springs during adjacent road work to create an improved backfeed path, and a new feeder was completed from a road cut at Highlands Bluff into Sienna Hills to provide alternate feed paths in the event of a cable failure.

On advanced metering, staff said all six data concentrator units have been installed and are communicating, and that a small set of single-phase and three-phase test meters have arrived. Staff member said there were profile issues on the three-phase meters and the vendor is sending test units. A larger shipment of an estimated few hundred meters is expected later in the month, and staff described ongoing work to integrate the new Aclara meter software with the billing system. “So that’s probably the biggest hurdle we have right now is to get all that software exchange back and forth happy,” Staff member said. The staff plan is a cautious rollout: a slow initial deployment for a few months and an overall swap-out timeline of about 18 to 24 months.

On rates and cost signals, staff showed December numbers indicating an average cost for power of about 7.5 cents (December) and said the Power Cost Adjustment (PCA) fell to about negative 1.7 cents because those costs were lower than the prior-year reference period. Staff cautioned regional supply — for example hydro or solar performance elsewhere in the West — can influence market prices and therefore local costs.

Regionally, staff updated the board on UAMPS-related projects and planning. The Miller County peaker project has not reached the subscription threshold to form a project management committee (the project requires 85% subscription, staff said). Staff also said UAMPS and participating utilities expect to complete looping of the 138 kV system this summer, which would improve reliability for portions of Hurricane, Laverne and other connected areas by eliminating single-line feed vulnerabilities.

Staff reported continued work on several renewable projects — two wind projects (Horse Butte and Pleasant Valley) and two geothermal projects — and said some projects and power sales contracts may be brought back to governing boards in the April–June timeframe. Staff also said the CFPP project is advancing with the Department of Energy on paperwork closeout, with changes in DOE personnel slowing but not derailing progress.

Staff noted the utility is nearing the 4-megawatt cap in its current solar policy and plans to present a proposal to update that policy at a future meeting.

Votes and procedural items: a motion to approve the agenda was made, seconded and not recorded in the transcript as a roll-call vote. Later, the board moved to adjourn; the adjournment motion was seconded and the meeting was closed after recorded affirmative votes were announced. “Sprigg’s aye. Hauser aye. And Dinsmore aye,” one board member called during the roll, and the meeting was adjourned.

The board scheduled its next meeting for March 4.

(Quotes in this article are taken from the meeting transcript and attributed to the presenter identified in the transcript as Staff member.)