OED outlines IPP transfer work, San Rafael lab status and capacity-expansion modeling

The Office of Energy Development told the Public Utilities, Energy & Technology Committee on Oct. 1 that it is moving forward on a set of legislatively required activities including the state's transfer of the Intermountain Power Plant (IPP), operation of the San Rafael Energy Lab and implementation of the strategic energy plan.

Director Emmy Lisovsky said the Utah Energy Council ' composed of the director as chair, Sen. Anne Milner, Rep. Karl Albrecht, Nate Walkingshaw and Curtis Wells ' is overseeing an appraisal of IPP land and water assets and preparing a request for information (RFI) for potential operators. Lisovsky said the RFI will be used to shape a later request for proposals (RFP) and that the office expects to issue the RFI in the coming days, subject to council comment and state purchasing rules. "We definitively feel an urgency as it relates to the IPP activities, and we're hoping we can get it out the door soon," she said.

The nut of the matter, Lisovsky told committee members, is to give respondents sufficient access to information so bidders can submit full responses; the RFI is expressly intended to inform a later RFP. She said the office is also…