Wind Farm Goes Ahead

DAYTON - Portland General Electric Company announced Monday that it has agreed to purchase development rights for a portion of Phase II of the Lower Snake River Wind Energy Project in Columbia County from Puget Sound Energy. PGE is a utility based in Portland that serves more than 800,000 customers in Oregon. In a press release issued Monday, PGE said the portion of the project they are taking over includes 116 wind turbine sites on land north of Dayton and west of Highway 12. It will use 2.3 megawatt turbines manufactured by Siemens Energy Inc., for a total project “nameplate capacity” of 267 megawatts. In a phone interview Tuesday, PGE spokesman Steve Corson said that the deal is expected to close in August and that PGE plans to begin construction almost immediately thereafter. The company hopes to have the project in full operation by early 2015 Construction of the project will be managed by RES Americas, who also built the Hopkins Ridge and Marengo wind projects in Columbia County, as well as Phase I of the LSR project in Garfield County. According to the press release, “PGE will own and operate the facility, creating up to 300 jobs during construction and about 18 full-time operating positions.” Puget Sound Energy began planning for the Lower Snake River project in 2009. Columbia County granted a Conditional Use Permit for the portion of the project within the county in the spring of 2010. That permit allowed for up to 351 turbines in the county, covering an area of just over 58,000 leased acres. Total maximum generating capacity for the entire project within the county would be about 800 megawatts. PGE will assume the rights to the existing permit, as well as the existing leases with landowners, for the portion of the LSR project they are purchasing. “We are very appreciative of the work PSE and RES have done to develop this project,” said Corson. Corson said that PGE plans to have its own operations office for the project near Dayton and will likely utilize Siemens for ongoing maintenance of the turbines. Anne Walsh, Puget Sound Energy’s Community/Environmental Manager in Dayton, said PSE has does not have plans scheduled at this time for development of the remaining portion of the LSR project in Columbia County that it will continue to own. She said that PSE is excited about the economic benefit that the new construction by PGE will bring to Dayton and Columbia County. Columbia County Planning Director Kim Lyonnais said that he doesn’t yet know the full impact the new project will have on his office in the coming months, but he expects a lot of work ahead. The county must work with the developer as roads are installed and transmission lines are built. And each turbine requires its own building permit. Lyonnais said that he planned to meet with the County Commissioners on Wednesday afternoon and with the county planning commission Wednesday evening, to discuss the new project. According to PGE’s press release, the Columbia County project “was the best-performing proposal from among 64 bids representing 39 distinct generating projects that were submitted in response to PGE’s request for proposals for renewable resources.” PGE’s Corson said a major benefit of purchasing the Columbia County project is that, with much of the permitting already complete, construction can begin this year. He said that project timing has been structured so that it can qualify for federal renewable energy production tax credits, which expire at the end of the year. PGE also is required to meet Oregon’s mandate of 15% of its customer demand being met with renewable energy by the end of 2015.