Despite recently receiving a $5 million federal grant, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District’s long-planned Iowa Hill pumped-storage project may be years away from construction. Federal licensing appears to be the main hold-up. Although Iowa Hill has been in the planning phase since 2003 and an Environmental Impact Report was completed in 2008, the project hasn’t gotten off the ground. “We’re still waiting for [Federal Energy Regulatory Commission] licensing,” Scott Flake, SMUD’s manager of power generation explained. The project also needs to be approved by the muni’s board of directors. Rather than receiving licensing separately, the Iowa Hill project is part of the relicensing application of the Upper American River Project, which is currently under consideration by FERC. Tying the two applications together may have saved SMUD time and costs, but it makes the initial licensing and relicensing more complicated, according to project manager David Hanson. The Iowa Hill project, contemplated by the utility since the 1970s, would be an addition to the existing 688-MW Upper American River Project, a hydroelectric facility primarily located within the Eldorado National Forest within Sacramento and El Dorado counties. The Iowa Hill component would consist of a new 400 MW hydro plant, which would be located near the El Dorado County city of Camino, about a mile up stream from the Slab Creek Dam on the south bank of the 13,335-acre-foot capacity Slab Creek Reservoir. The reservoir, located on the South Fork of the American River, is another component of the Upper American River Project. The Iowa Hill project would draw water from the reservoir and use a new 6,400-acre-foot capacity upper reservoir covering 72 acres atop Iowa Hill. A majority of the plant equipment would be placed underground to minimize visual impacts, according to SMUD. The muni says the design of the project is to make use of electricity during periods of lower energy demand or when energy from wind resources is available to pump water from a lower reservoir to a higher reservoir. Electricity would be generated by releasing water from the hilltop reservoir during periods of high demand and electrical emergencies. The $5 million in federal funding is part of $17 million in hydropower study funding that the U.S. Department of the Interior announced Sept. 7 for 16 projects in 11 states across the country. Interior says the funding is aimed at developing technologies that can produce power more efficiently and increase sustainable hydropower generation. SMUD is expected to use the money to conduct engineering studies. Flake, however, cautioned that the funds are still subject to negotiation between the federal government and the utility and that the terms still need to be approved by the board. “It’s not finalized,” he said.
