Lessons on power generation
Palo Verde official talks nuclear energy, ballot initiative
Yumans got a lesson in nuclear power generation during the Yuma County Chamber of Commerce “Good Morning, Yuma!” breakfast held Thursday.
Guest speaker Bob Bement, executive vice president and chief nuclear officer of the Palo Verde Generating Station (and grandson of Yuma snowbirds), talked about nuclear energy and the Clean Energy for a Healthy Arizona ballot initiative. The nuclear plant is located near Tonopah and is owned partly by Arizona Public Service.
Bement noted that the nuclear power plant used to run like a Navy submarine: “Run silent, run deep, don’t tell anybody you’re there. Just generate electricity.” But as society has changed, “we want people to know we are there. We want people to know that we add value to the community and are proud to add value to the community.”
He added: “We’re very proud that we’re the big part of the carbon-free generating source not only in America but across the world. One of the things about us is we’re reliable.” He noted that 92 percent of the time the plant is running at 100 percent.
He also touted the plant’s efficiency, explaining that one uranium fuel pellet, which is about the size of a pencil eraser, creates as much energy as one ton of coal or 17,000 cubic feet of gas.
The station employs 2,600 people with more than 800 additional outage contractors hired each spring and fall to refuel units. The plant has a yearly economic impact of more than $2 billion in Arizona, with a yearly average of $117 million spent in local goods and services.
In the U.S., nuclear plants produce 20 percent of the power. Natural gas is the
largest producer, at 31.7 percent, followed by coal at 30.1 percent; hydropower at 7.5 percent; wind at 6.3 percent; solar at percent 1.3 percent; wood, waste and geothermal at 2 percent; and oil and miscellenous gases 1.1 percent.
The nation’s nuclear plants produce more than half of the country’s carbonfree electricity. “Right now 56 percent of what you get is from nuclear plants, which produce 20 percent of your electricity,” Bement said.
He noted that without nuclear power, carbon dioxide emissions from the U.S. electric sector would be about 25 percent higher.
“Without nuclear power, most states can’t get to the carbon-free, energy they want to get to. You’ve seen the advertising pushing carbon-free which we totally support and we have a plan. As part of Arizona Public Service, we want to get carbon-free, we want to continue to lead the industry.”
Palo Verde produces more than 70 percent of Arizona’s clean air energy and also provides a little over 70 percent of New Mexico’s clean energy, he said.
In Arizona, the base load is nuclear, followed by coal and gas, with solar building up. APS has one million solar panels installed in the state.
“In the evening solar goes away, but when you go home and you flip that switch you want power. We want to provide that power. We have to have plants that are ready to ramp up and power when you go home,” Bement said.
Palo Verde has seven owners. It is operated by APS, which has 29.1 percent ownership, followed by the Salt River Project, 17.49 percent; El Paso Electric, 15.8 percent; Southern California Edison, 15.8 percent; Public Service Company of New Mexico, 10.2 percent; Southern California Public Power Authority, 5.91 percent; and Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, 5.7 percent.
“Seven owners -- it is fun during budget season. I just have to have unanimous approval of my budget. And people are on different costcutting initiatives depending on where they are. So it helps us drive the cost down and maintain the cost down of producing our power,” Bement said.
CLEAN ENERGY AND BALLOT INITIATIVE
Bement addressed clean energy and the ballot initiative. “Today we serve customers with an energy that is 50 percent clean. By 2030, without the initiative, it will be 60 percent carbonfree,” he said.
He added that Palo Verde provides 70 percent of Arizona’s carbon-free energy and uses recycled wastewater to cool the plants. “I like to say we take the water from your toilet, not necessarily from Yuma, from cities, and we turn that back around and we send electricity to your toaster.”
The Clean Energy for a Healthy Arizona initiative would amend the state constitution to require select Arizona utility companies to obtain 50 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2030. Twenty percent of renewable generation must come from rooftop solar.
“Rooftop solar just by its nature is the most inefficient way we can produce electricity that there is. If you want to go solar, then Solano Plant just up the road here is a great way to do it, where you have panels that track the sun morning to evening,” Bement said. “The great thing about Solano is we have power to help fill that peak in the evening.”
He noted that the initiative specifically excludes nuclear energy as a cleanair solution and it does not apply to SRP, which Bement says out of all the utilities produces the largest carbon footprint. It would force APS to retire power plants, including those in Cholla and Four Corners in the early 2020s and Palo Verde in the mid-2020s.
About 480,000 signatures were submitted, and a review was performed on every signature, with APS taking part in that review. The validity of numerous signatures are being challenged.
“We believe there’s about 106,000 valid signatures,” Bement said, adding that more than 50 percent of signers were not registered voters.
Lawsuits have been filed, and a hearing is expected to take place Aug. 20. The issue must be resolved by Sept. 7, when ballots will be printed for the November election.
“If the judge follows the law, this will not be on the November ballot,” Bement said. “I hope not to see it on the November ballot, but if we do, we’ll put our faith in the people of Arizona to do the right thing.”