The most tangible evidence yet in Moffat County

Pumped-storage hydro study one of the possibilities as Colorado community looks to short up economy after coal plants close later this decade.

by Allen Best

Moffat County has achieved its most tangible step yet in creating an economy to replace the lost jobs and tax base of its three coal-fired electrical plants at Craig Station and the associated coal mines.

The county has received a $150,000 grant from Colorado’s Office of Just Transition. This money is to be used to conduct a socio-economic study of a potential pumped-storage hydro project near Craig. It will be necessary in the application for a permit from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

The project, still very early in the permitting process, has an estimated cost of $1.5 billion to $2 billion and could employ 30 to 40 people.

The Moffat County commissioners on Tuesday awarded the job of conducting the study to SWCA Environmental Consultants, a company based in Broomfield. The study is to be done by April.

“I think it’s important to understand, when trying to wrap your head around this, that the politics of shutting down a coal plant are not helping us replace 47% of our budget once they are closed,” said Tony Bohrer, a county commissioner. “It’s not because we’re running out of coal.”

But it was the county commissioners and their staff, not another agency, that noticed a filing in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that a developer was interested in creating a pumped-storage hydro. Moffat County then reached out to the developer to understand what was being pursued and, when the grant opportunity became available, applied.

“If we found another business that was really looking at Moffat County, we would be doing the same thing, pursuing every avenue to be sure they could be successful here.”

Local governments in the Yampa Valley depend heavily upon property tax assessments of the coal infrastructure. The coal-associated jobs also pay well, about $100,000 a year.

Jeff Comstock, who directs the county’s Department of Natural Resources, agreed that this is the most tangible step forward yet for the county as it plans for the future.

“It will take a lot of things to replace what we are losing, and pumped-storage hydro might be one of the bigger tax bases, but we won’t know until we get further along in the process.”

Moffat County, he added, has been looking at many ideas, and so has the city of Craig.

Xcel Energy announced in 2018 that it was planning to get out of coal but did not give an immediate date for closing the two coal-generating plants it owns and operates at Hayden.

Craig and Moffat County have depended heavily on extraction and combustion of coal since a trio of coal-burning units were built in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Photo/Allen Best

At Craig, one unit was already scheduled to close by 2025 when Tri-State, in January 2020, announced it was also planning to close the other two units . The last coal unit is currently scheduled to close in 2030, although Tri-State recently announced it hopes to accelerate the retirement of the final unit to 2028.

Three years ago, the county commissioners noticed a filing in the Federal Register of the interest by a developer in developing a pumped-storage unit. They invited the company, now called rPlus Hydro, to meet with them. The county has also been in conversation with Tri-State. Tri-State has not included the idea in its electric resource plan filing, but the Moffat County officials describe Tri-State as being encouraging.

See other stories by Big Pivots about pumped-storage hydro in Colorado:

Company says it has deal with landowners along the Yampa River. Sept. 23, 2023.
Will these projects help Colorado achieve its decarbonization goals? May 10, 2023
Thinking about wind and water in Wyoming, June 14, 2022
A short rope for Xcel and pumped storage, June 14, 2022
Can pumped-hydro helped Colorado utilities integrate more renewables? June 26, 2021.

The key logic to this proposal lies in the existing transmission lines that deliver electricity generated at the three coal-burning units at Craig and two coal-burning units at Hayden to other parts of Colorado and the region.

But electricity generated by wind and solar in other locations could also be transmitted to this pumped-storage hydro site. It is 16 miles from the Hayden plant and 10 miles from the Craig plant.

Even today, as Xcel Energy had started installing battery storage along the Front Range, the company’s single biggest storage technology consists of the Cabin Creek project between Guanella Pass and Georgetown. The two units of Cabin Creek can together generate 324 megawatts. Water is released from the power reservoir to generate electricity as needed to meet peak demands. Then, when electricity is plentiful, it is pumped back up the hill. Very little water is lost in this process.

The same principle would be used in the Yampa Valley. There, the proposal is called the Craig-Hayden Pumped Storage Hydro Project.

Output would be 600 megawatts with a longevity of eight hours. That compares with the generating capacity of Hayden Station at 447 megawatts. The three Craig units have a combined capacity of 1,304 units.

As now envisioned, the pumped-storage project would be entirely on private land. The project developer has completed leasing. It would consist of a 60-acre upper reservoir and a 110-acre lower reservoir, joined by a combination of buried pipe and tunnel.

There are alternative configurations that will be studied as the proposal moves forward, said Matthew Shapiro, the chief executive of rPlus Hydro, the developer.

Vertical drop matters. Pumped-storage can be done with just a few hundred feet.

“Generally speaking, the higher the head, the better for pumped storage. And 1,500 feet is an excellent vertical drop. That’s what we have here,” he told Big Pivots.

Shapiro’s company has a preliminary permit, which he describes as merely a place-holder in the permitting process. Next comes a FERC license application. This socio-economic study would be required to accompany that application. This could happen during 2025.

Why did neither Xcel nor Tri-State include this project as being among the technologies in their electric resource plan applications with the Colorado PUC?

Shapiro said those plans look out five to eight years – but not longer. “They have to be careful in evaluating technologies and seeing what projects are maturing and ready to be formally included in an electric resource plan.”

So it’s possible that this project could show up in plans submitted in the next three to four years.

The state Office of Just Transition also awarded $307000 to South Routt Medical Center in Oak Creek. The money is to help in planning an expansion.

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