1 / 3

The Springville Power Department recently installed three new power generators at its Whitehead power plant facility.

Courtesy Marci Harris

2 / 3

The Springville Power Department recently installed three new power generators at its Whitehead power plant facility.

Courtesy Marci Harris

3 / 3

The Springville Power Department recently installed three new power generators at its Whitehead power plant facility.

Courtesy Marci Harris

❮ ❯

Three new generators are online and operating at Springville’s Whitehead Power Plant.

The  new engines are expected to help save Springville residents hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in power costs while reducing carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions from the plant, according to a press release.

The new gas-powered engines began operating in July, following a yearlong installation process.

The three generators replace two older diesel units at the plant.

Jason Miller, director of the Springville Power Department, explained that the four diesel generators were installed at the plant during the late 1980s and ’90s. Three additional generators were purchased some time later bringing the total number of engines to seven.

In 2015, the utility began replacing some of the older units that no longer were supported by their manufacturer, thus making required repairs difficult.

“Because they’re old, they don’t make the parts to fix them up or repair them. And so when anything breaks, we have to custom make (parts) or go find somebody that can fix it. And so they’re not dependable at the times that we need them,” Miller said.

According to the release, the new engines are smaller, more reliable and require less maintenance, factors that ultimately will help keep costs low.

Springville’s power typically comes from a number of resources including wind, solar and hydroelectric sources in Idaho, Wyoming and Utah — in addition to the Nebo power plant project in Payson.

When peak demand periods occur, prices on the power market can increase to levels higher than it costs the city to run its own power-generating engines, the release states. Springville will turn on the city’s engines located at the plant to supplement during those peak times to supplement at a lower cost, with the power being purchased from the market.

Mike Pool, Springville City power generation superintendent, says the market can go up to as high as $1,200 per megawatt per hour. It costs Springville about $42 per megawatt to run an engine for an hour.

“It saves us well over a million dollars a year on power prices,” Pool said in the release. “If we had to buy that power off the market, we’d have to raise everybody’s rates to cover the additional cost.”

Miller said while the new engines are a great upgrade, they can only produce about half the power of each previous engine, so the city needs more of the smaller units to generate comparable amounts of power.

Two remaining older engines are still in use at the plant. The power department would like to replace those as well but does not currently have the funds to do so. The city already spent approximately $12 million on the newest additions, according to the release.

“The purpose of the generators is to keep our rates stable,” Miller said. “When those prices are really high, we can turn on these engines and we can produce power at a much cheaper cost than buying in the market.”

The Springville Power Department is inviting residents to tour the Whitehead facility during an open house from 6-8 p.m. Wednesday. The power plant is located at 650 N. 450 West in Springville.