Rocky Mountain Power completes major wind power project

Rocky Mountain Power's Energy Vision 2020 plan is coming to fruition. Photo: Jason Blackeye

CASPER, Wyo. — Rocky Mountain Power, a subsidiary of PacifiCorp, has completed its plan to more than double the amount of wind power it can send to customers in the Rocky Mountain region and Northwest.

Rocky Mountain Power’s Energy Vision 2020 plan, announced in 2017, included four Wyoming wind projects: Cedar Springs I, Cedar Springs II, Ekola Flats, and TB Flats. Combined, they have a capacity of 1,150 megawatts, enough for more than 300,000 average-sized homes.

The program also involved revamping existing wind farms and building 140 miles (225 kilometers) of transmission line between Medicine Bow and Rock Springs in southern Wyoming.

The expanded wind capacity goes to customers in Wyoming as well as California, Idaho, Oregon, Utah, and Washington — the six states served by Rocky Mountain Power’s parent company, Portland, Oregon-based PacifiCorp, the Casper Star-Tribune reports.

The final Wyoming wind project, the 500-megawatt TB Flats wind farm in Carbon County, went online in April. It took Rocky Mountain Power several months to declare the facility commercially operational.

“We’re not done yet,” Rocky Mountain Power spokesman David Eskelsen said. “The demand for electricity is continuing to grow, the energy economy is changing rapidly, and so we look to Wyoming to be a resource to help us meet the needs of our customers for many years to come.”

PacifiCorp has wind farms elsewhere but Wyoming has the best sites for wind density in the utility’s service territory, Eskelsen said.

More information on Rocky Mountain Power’s project.