By VERNON ROBISON
The Progress
The Moapa Town Advisory Board (MTAB) approved plans last week for a new electrical transmission line to be built just west of Moapa. The line will connect a proposed new solar power generating facility to the Overton Power District Tortoise Substation.
At a meeting held on Tuesday, May 31, the board heard a presentation from representatives of Estuary Capital Partners, a company which is building the Tamarack Solar project. This renewable power project already has its approvals and will be located on 480 acres in the northeast corner of the Moapa River Indian Reservation. The parcel straddles both sides of State Highway 168 about a half mile west of the Union Pacific Railroad crossing. Construction is expected to begin later this year.
MTAB Chairwoman Jamie Shakespear clarified that the discussion before the board was not to discuss or approve the solar plant itself.
“This is only about the transmission line,” Shakespear said. “The solar plant is a done deal. We have no say what happens on the reservation itself. This is only to approve the tie-line.”
Madeleine Lehner of Estuary Capital Partners explained that the 69 kiloVolt generation-tie (gen-tie) line would extend about 1.5 miles across BLM land from the proposed plant to the OPD5 Tortoise substation. The line would include overhead wires on 75-foot high power poles running through a 60-foot wide right of way.
Estuary has made an agreement with OPD5 to provide about a third of the power generated at the 60-megawatt Tamarack Solar project to OPD5 customers. The rest of the power is under agreement with owners of large resort properties in Las Vegas.
Lehner said that the company had determined this proposal to be the best location for the gen-tie line.
“We looked at a number of routes going from the reservation to the interconnecting substation and this ended up being the shortest and following an existing transmission line,” Lehner said. “So we thought that it followed the best character and existing uses of the land.”
MTAB member Blake Stratton asked why the company didn’t connect at the Reid Gardner substation nearby.
Estuary Capital Vice President Kim Primerano, who was also in attendance, explained that this would not work as Reid Gardner is owned by NV Energy which is not a customer for the project. She explained that direct connection to the OPD5 main hub at Tortoise would prevent higher costs through wheeling and transmission fees for OPD5 customers. In fact, OPD5 would benefit by charging wheeling fees for the other 2/3 of the power, rather than having to pay the fees.
OPD5 Engineering Manager Randall Ozaki explained to the board that the rate negotiated for the power from the Tamarack station is a very attractive rate and would benefit OPD5 customers. The district is coming to the end of its current power purchase contract in 2025 and it is projected that the cost of power purchased will increase significantly for the OPD5 at that time, Ozaki said.
“This agreement will help us to keep rates lower into the future,” Ozaki said.
Another benefit to the project is that the proposed Tamarack plant will bring power generation into the OPD5 territory, Ozaki said.
“We will have 60 megawatts sitting right here by us that can feed us during the day,” Ozaki said. “So if NV Energy lines or their system goes down, we have generation right next door to us.”
Shakespear asked what additional benefits the community of Moapa might receive by hosting the gen-tie line.
Ozaki responded that there was no benefit specific to Moapa residents. But that the benefits would be there for all OPD5 customers, including those in Moapa.
“But don’t forget, that redundancy is a huge benefit,” Ozaki said. “Having that local power source is a very real benefit.”
Stratton was concerned that other solar developers might come in later and be allowed to expand, and tie into, the transmission line in order to build additional plants that would further crowd the Moapa community. Primerano assured that the proposed gen-tie line was dedicated only to the Tamarack project. No additional capacity was available on the line. Even so, Stratton asked if the developer would agree to a formal stipulation to that effect. Primerano assented to this.
Stratton also asked about who would be hired to fill the jobs for constructing the gen-tie line. Primerano responded that the company is contractually required to give priority to Native American labor on the project. But after that labor pool is fulfilled, they have latitude to fill the rest of the positions from outside the reservation. She expressed a willingness to give local residents a second priority in hiring for the project.
Stratton made a motion to approve the gen-tie line on the condition that it would be wholly exclusive to serving the Tamarack plant only and that local labor would be given some kind of prioritization in hiring for the project.
The vote was unanimous to adopt the motion.
