With Amazon and Energy Northwest teaming up to provide small modular reactors located at Energy Northwest’s campus in north Richland, local utilities are taking notice – and they are planning to take advantage of the opportunity.

At a Feb. 18 Richland City Council meeting, Energy Services Director Clint Whitney discussed these opportunities. Public utilities are expected to have first right of refusal for the energy, so Richland could have the chance to buy in.

Whitney discussed the city’s potential options so that funds could be set aside if the city decided to take advantage of it in the future.

“No decisions have to be made, no ask has been made of us on this, to participate, but it’s just trying to think about, if we did, these are some of the numbers that we would kind of want to think about,” Whitney said during a council presentation.

The options laid out in the meeting’s agenda packet were to not participate; to not participate in the first four SMR units but consider participating in the later eight units; to participate with the first four SMR units; or to participate with the first four SMR units and also the later eight. 

Official numbers aren’t set yet, but Whitney calculated that for an approximately $4 billion project, utilities might expect to pay $2.5 million per megawatt. 

That math comes from the expectation that the U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Program Office will loan 80% of the project’s costs, with the remaining 20% coming from various power purchasers. 

The SMRs will produce 320 MW, which is where the estimated $2.5 million-per-MW price tag comes in.

The SMR project wouldn’t come online until 2032, but the purchase could be strategic in the long run.

“The advantage of having a long-term power supply resource … is you secure that pricing, you have a known, for that duration of it, and with an SMR, it’s 60 years,” Whitney said.

Whitney said that Richland is already 20 MW above its contract high water mark with the Bonneville Power Administration, which puts that extra power usage in a different rate tier.

Power purchased from SMRs could help supplement the power used by BPA. 

“We do have that opportunity to buy nonfederal power or buy a resource in the future or participate with a resource in the future,” Whitney said. 

Whitney discussed the possibility of setting aside $5 million for purchasing SMR power, which would cover 2 MW, or 10% of the 20 MW the city pays for BPA’s higher rate tier.

It’s a good idea to think about setting aside that money now, he said, as the city has $28 million in unrestricted cash, or 167 days of cash on hand, a number that is expected to go down by the end of the year. 

The BPA’s rates also will increase by the end of the year, he said, and liquidity will go down. 

“BPA’s prices are changing every two years or three years, and so you don’t know what that potential escalation could be. So it gets you surety,” Whitney said. 

If the council wanted to set aside some amount for the project, a resolution would be brought forward in the future to restrict that cash, Whitney said.  

The council appeared excited about the opportunity. 

Councilman Shayne VanDyke noted that demand for power would only go up while the supply goes down. 

Councilman Ryan Whitten said, “it would be an excellent move to secure at least some of our power and show good faith to our partners that are investing in our region.”

“I’m excited about the prospect of participation, and strongly in support of restricting funds to make sure we have that option when the time comes,” said Councilman Kurt Maier.