Port of Moses Lake power generation project moving forward

“Do we need new transmission and transmission rebuilds? Yes. Do we need more gas service and potentially gas line extensions? Probably. Those are going to take a long time. While we're working on those, what can we do in the next two to five years?” 

Shannon Souza, Sol Coast Consulting

MOSES LAKE — Some existing Port of Moses Lake customers are considering expansion, and potential customers are looking at Moses Lake as an option. But, said Shannon Souza of Sol Coast Consulting, there are some roadblocks.  

“The rates of growth from the (businesses) you have successfully attracted to Moses Lake far exceed the rates of delivery from the Grant County PUD,” Souza told port commissioners during a presentation Monday. “We can all agree this is a dilemma.” 

Port officials announced in December they are exploring construction of their own electrical generating capacity and commissioned a “pre-feasibility” study from Sol Coast Consulting to see what’s possible. What the study found was a range of options. Determining which options are practical and which are affordable will be among the subjects addressed in the follow-up study. 

Souza said the just-completed study, and the follow-up studies, have both short-range and long-range goals. 

“Do we need new transmission and transmission rebuilds? Yes. Do we need more gas service and potentially gas line extensions? Probably. Those are going to take a long time,” she said. “While we're working on those, what can we do in the next two to five years to relieve some of this pressure and keep your employees here and possibly attract even more employees?” 

One of the potential solutions to the energy challenge is agriculture, she said. 

“We have a lot of agricultural waste or residual products in Grant County. Those can be turned into energy revenues,” she said. 

Souza cited an example from a trip she took to Denmark. 

“As soon as I stood there and looked around, it made me think of the Wheeler (Road) corridor. Very similar situation. You're surrounded by agricultural land. They had a utility that was tapped out and could not support any industrial diversification,” she said. “(Local officials) really wanted to attract some higher-paying wages to complement the ag base that they had there. What they did was, they intentionally developed an industrial park. In terms of the physical infrastructure, it’s very similar to the Wheeler corridor. It's like an electrical cul-de-sac, if you will.” 

Farmers provided the raw materials, which the businesses used to generate electricity. There’s similar potential in exchanges between businesses, she said, where one business uses the heat generated by another business. Souza visited another industrial park in Denmark that used that model. 

“They had existing industry,” she said. And one neighbor talked to another and said, ‘Hey, I could really use your waste heat. I'm spending a lot of money producing this heat for my process. What do you say we get together and invest in a district heating loop? That way, I will end up paying you for your therms, but I'm going to pay you less than I would, and now we’ve freed up more electricity for the other services.’ That was 35 years ago.” 

Electrical generation from natural gas is another possibility, Souza said, and using it in conjunction with the alternative methods would allow existing natural gas supplies to go further. Washington state officials are looking at possible use of geothermal energy, something PUD officials in Grant, Douglas and Chelan counties are also considering. 

The study suggested setting some timelines, goals for the next two or three years, then five years, then further out. 

Port Commissioner Kent Jones said the project has a lot better chance of success with the cooperation of the PUD. Souza said the consultants have been talking to PUD officials from the beginning, and plan to keep doing that. Utility district commissioners have emphasized they are most interested in seeing that residential, general commercial and agriculture customers, known as the core customers, get the biggest financial benefit from PUD power. Souza said the consultants acknowledged that. 

“I believe that they appreciated that, and that allows us to then look at where are the opportunities for collaboration,” she said.