UAMPS' CARBON FREE POWER PROJECT NOT FINANCIALLY VIABLE
John Rogers
Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS) and NuScale Power Corp., a Portland, Oregon-based energy technology company, have announced that they have mutually agreed to abandon their planned Carbon Free Power Project (CFPP).
The CFPP is a small modular nuclear reactor (SMR) project that was expected to be the first SMR to win a license from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for construction. But NuScale said it appeared unlikely the project will have enough subscribers to continue toward deployment. The CFPP is wholly owned by UAMPS and was to be built on a site near the Idaho National Laboratory near Idaho Falls, Idaho, and service UAMPS members. NuScale, developer of the SMR, was to be the developer and builder of the 462- megawatt CFPP facility. NuScale’s design for its SMR is the only one approved to date by the NRC.
UAMPS is an interlocal agency of the state of Utah, established in 1980. As a project-based energy services entity, UAMPS provides a variety of power supply, transmission and other services to its 50 members, which include public power utilities in the seven western states of Utah, Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico and Wyoming.
NuScale said earlier this year that the target price for power from the plant was $89 per megawatt hour, up 53 percent from a previous estimate of $58 per MWh, raising concerns about customers’ willingness to pay.
“Despite significant efforts by both parties to advance the CFPP, it appears unlikely that the project will have enough subscription to continue toward deployment,” UAMPS and NuScale said in a joint statement. “Therefore, UAMPS and NuScale have mutually determined that ending the project is the most prudent decision for both parties.”
“This decision is very disappointing given the years of pioneering hard work put into the CFPP by UAMPS, CFPP LLC, NuScale, the U.S. Department of Energy and the UAMPS member communities that took the leadership role to launch the CFPP,” said Mason Baker, UAMPS CEO and general manager. “Yet, this decision is the best course for the UAMPS members participating in the CFPP and doing what is best for those member communities will always be the guiding light in such decisions. We have learned many invaluable lessons during the development of the CFPP that we will carry forward in future development work to meet the future energy needs of the UAMPS member communities. We look forward to continuing to provide innovative and cost-effective new resource solutions to our members, and, at the same time, we hope NuScale is successful in deploying its technology.”
“Through our work with UAMPS and our partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy, we have advanced our NuScale Power Modules to the point that utilities, governments and industrials can rely on a proven small modular reactor technology that has regulatory approval and is in active production,” said John Hopkins, NuScale president and CEO. “Our work with CFPP over the past 10 years has advanced NuScale technology to the stage of commercial deployment. Reaching that milestone is a tremendous success which we will continue to build on with future customers. NuScale will continue with our other domestic and international customers to bring our American SMR technology to market and grow the U.S. nuclear manufacturing base, creating jobs across the U.S. We thank UAMPS for the collaboration that has enabled this advancement.”
In 2020, the Department of Energy approved $1.35 billion over 10 years for the Carbon Free Power Project, subject to congressional appropriations. The department has provided NuScale and others about $600 million since 2014 to support commercialization of small-reactor technologies.
An Energy Department spokesperson said the termination of the project was unfortunate news, but added, “We believe the work accomplished to date on CFPP will be valuable for future nuclear energy projects. While not every project is guaranteed to succeed, DOE remains committed to doing everything we can to deploy these technologies to combat the climate crisis and increase access to clean energy.”
Opponents of the CFPP have long opined that the project was not economically viable. Rusty Cannon, president of the Utah Taxpayers Association, in a press release in response to the cancellation of CFPP, said, “As we have said for many years, taxpayer-funded entities should not be acting as venture capitalists on risky projects, no matter what the nature of the project is. This welcome news for taxpayers in Utah confirms what reasonable voices surrounding this project have known and spoken about for years — that it was doomed to fail.”
Baker said that UAMPS was working closely with NuScale and the U.S. Department of Energy on the next steps to wind the project down.