By Vernon Robison
Moapa Valley Progress
A small hydro-power generating facility located west of the Warm Springs area was approved by the Moapa Town Advisory Board (MTAB) in a meeting held on Thursday, January 27. The hydro turbine facility would use water flow from the new Coyote Springs pipeline to generate 300-450 kilowatts of electricity, said representatives of the Bureau of Land Management and the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA). The power would feed into the Overton Power District system.
SNWA spokesman, Bronson Mack explained that the facility would be located along State Highway 168 about a mile west of the western end of the Warm Springs Rd. loop. It would consist of a .7 acre parcel improved with an access road from the highway and a 24 ft high prefabricated metal building.
The water being used by the facility to generate power comes 15.5 miles from Coyote Springs through a new 24 inch pipeline constructed. The pipeline was constructed to facilitate a major test pump project in that area. It connects into the Moapa Valley Water District system at the MVWD Moapa water tank.From there the water is conveyed through the MVWD system into Bowman Reservoir where it is stored and eventually returned to the Muddy and flows into Lake Mead.
The proposed project would route some of that water through the hydroturbine and allow the capture of energy that would otherwise be lost, Mack said. The facility would be unoccupied and monitored remotely through a control system.
“The generator will produce enough power to supply 20 or so homes,” Mack said. “It will benefit the SNWA because it will offset some of the power cost of pumping the water from Coyote Springs to Moapa.”
MTAB member Craig Wolfley made a motion to approve the project. The motion was adopted with a unanimous vote.
