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Lawmakers Seek Extra Energy Help by Jeff Mapes, Staff Reporter The Oregonian, March 7, 2001

An Oregon bill would hasten the installation of temporary generators when needed

SALEM -- Oregon lawmakers began laying a fast track Tuesday for legislation aimed at bringing emergency energy generation on line as early as next fall.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers, supported by a wide variety of business and energy interests, unveiled a bill that would ease the way for utilities and other power producers to temporarily install new generators at existing power plants and other industrial facilities.

David Stewart-Smith, who heads the state's energy resources division, said there are probably a half-dozen sites around the state that could easily accommodate such temporary power plants.

Unlike the diesel-powered generators that have been popping up around the West, he said the bill is designed to encourage the larger, natural gas-fired turbines capable of producing up to 50 megawatts of electricity without creating significant pollution. Fifty megawatts is enough to energize about 17,500 homes.

Senate Bill 843 would exempt these temporary power generators from the state's facilities-siting law if they received local land-use approval and do not present environmental problems. The temporary power plants would be allowed to operate for no more than 24 months.

The measure, which backers hope to get to the governor's desk by the end of this month, also seeks to quickly spur more wind power by easing the regulatory requirements for wind, solar and geothermal energy. The bill raises the threshold for when wind farms need state approval from projects producing 25 megawatts of peak power to roughly 105 megawatts of peak power.

"The objective is to look at things we can do to get energy generation on the ground quickly," said Roy Hemmingway, Gov. John Kitzhaber's chief energy aide.

Officials say the Northwest could face a worsened energy crunch this fall when dramatically low reservoir levels are expected because of this winter's dry weather. The result could be that the region, which usually relies on hydropower for its peak electrical supplies, may be scrambling for every kilowatt of power it can find.

Stewart-Smith said the temporary turbines, often carried on railcars, normally wouldn't be economically viable. But with skyrocketing prices on the spot market, he said he thought the state could develop several hundred megawatts of supplies by the end of the year from both wind and temporary turbines.

"Several hundred megawatts is not make or break," Stewart-Smith said, "but every little bit helps."

Three-part plan The bill, which received its first hearing Tuesday before the Senate rules committee, is part of a three-pronged legislative response to the energy crisis.

Sens. Lee Beyer, D-Springfield, and Jason Atkinson, R-Jacksonville, who are heading negotiations on energy legislation, said they were also nearing completion on a bill that would speed the siting of permanent new power plants. The third part of the package, legislation providing new tax incentives for fuel cells and other alternative energy, passed the Senate Revenue Committee last week.

Atkinson said energy investors are deciding now where in the West to site both temporary and permanent energy facilities. "If we act right now, we have a chance of really making Oregon competitive" for these investments, he said.

SB 843 also contains several technical amendments to the 1999 law that will begin to partially deregulate the state's energy market starting in October. A dispute among attorneys over the legal wording of one of these provisions led the rules committee to put off approval of the bill on Tuesday.