The Naughton Power Plant is converting from coal to natural gas.  (SVI Photo by Duke Dance – June 2023)

• Unit 3 has already been converted

The Naughton Power Plant in Kemmerer was commissioned as a coal-fired facility in 1963 and has been a large economic driver for the county and Kemmerer/Diamondville specifically for many decades. However, the plant is currently undergoing the conversion from a coal-fired plant to natural gas and according to Rocky Mountain Power spokesman Dave Eskelsen, that process should be completed in the coming months.

“Unit 3 has already been converted to natural gas,” he said. “In regards to Units 1 and 2, we’ve started construction on the natural gas pipeline infrastructure and the natural gas supply contracts are in place for operations on that fuel in 2026.”

While Eskelsen could not anticipate an exact date on the completion of the conversion, the timeline is expected to be in the early months of 2026.

“I think it will probably take place soon after the new year based on our other conversion projects from coal to natural gas projects,” he answered. “It takes some months to do that.”

The reason for the changes stem from the national conversation of air quality emissions as energy companies started to move away from coal, a major economic driver in Wyoming. While those ideas have softened in recent months, it still remains the reason for changes such as the conversion at the Naughton plant.

“Generally it’s the result of state and federal air quality policies,” Eskelsen replied. “In 2021, because of the direction of those policies regarding air emissions, the expectations for Naughton 1 and 2 was to be retired in 2026. As those policies have evolved, it became clear that depending on which way they swing, we can continue to operate those units on natural gas.”

Eskelsen also noted that Rocky Mountain Power tries to avoid actions like mass layoffs over the course of this type of change.

“Based on our past experience there is less equipment to maintain with natural gas as opposed to coal,” he said. “But the company continually evaluates our work requirements. What we typically try and do is to manage work force levels with normal attrition. If we have positions elsewhere in the company we try to mange it that way instead of layoffs. When we take a look at our long range planning, we completely recast our resource planning. When we do that, our focus is to come up with the least cost and least risk for our customers.”

Kemmerer’s place as an energy hub is currently in the transition to nuclear as the first Natrium reactor from TerraPower is working through the process of construction in the area. Along with that is the Kemmerer Training Facility which broke ground last month that will be used to train workers to operate the many facets of the facility. As reported by SVI on August 28, TerraPower President and CEO, Chris Levesque, anticipates construction on the energy island by the end of the year and then the nuclear island at the beginning of 2026.