Alternatives

2.1.3 No Action Alternative

Under the no action alternative, an original license is not granted for the proposed Project. The Project would not be constructed or operated, and the proposed economical supply of peaking power generated by the Project in balance with renewable generation sources on the grid, and other electric system ancillary services, such as operating reserves and voltage and frequency support, would not be available to the grid. Under the no action alternative, the environmental resource effects and enhancements discussed in this application arising from the Project would not occur.

2.2 Alternatives Considered but Eliminated from Detailed Analysis

There are several other types of electric generation resources that can supply dispatchable power, ancillary services and, in the case of energy storage technologies, use renewable resources more effectively by storing and shaping their delivery. As will be explained below, none of these alternatives could fit the need as well as the proposed Project.

2.2.1 Regional Generation Supply Development and Generation Supply Alternatives

The future energy supply in Wyoming and greater regional market will be increasingly supplied by wind and solar resources, which are non-dispatchable, intermittent, and variable in nature but have become the lowest cost sources of energy.3 Large-scale energy storage must be developed to provide resiliency and reliability to an electric grid increasingly powered by intermittent renewable energies. Wyoming currently does not have a requirement or goal to generate a certain amount of the state’s electricity from renewable energy (U.S. Energy Information Administration 2021). However, PacifiCorp (the utility with which the Project would interconnect and the dominant utility serving Wyoming and major load centers in Utah) has chosen a path to de-carbonization that entails closing coal-fired generating plants and adding significant amounts of renewable energy, as detailed in their 2021 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) (PacifiCorp 2021).

Beginning in 2017, PacifiCorp more than doubled wind energy production and constructed a key segment of the Energy Gateway transmission projects, including four new wind projects in Wyoming: Cedar Springs 1, Cedar Springs 2, Ekola Flats, and TB Flats; totaling 1,150 MW of new generating capability.

PacifiCorp is investing in re-powering nearly all its existing wind fleet located in Wyoming, Washington, and Oregon, which involves installing new, larger, state-of-the-art nacelles

3 New solar development in PacifiCorp’s preferred portfolio is paired with new storage resources (i.e., batteries) (PacifiCorp 2021). Therefore, projected portfolio plans for wind generation, rather than solar, are discussed in this section.