SALT LAKE CITY — A $3.5 billion plan that serves as a 20-year blueprint for meeting power generation needs in Utah and five other states in the West envisions a new transmission line to carry Wyoming wind and building 1,040 megawatts of solar capacity, with the majority of that in Utah.

Rocky Mountain Power unveiled its 2017 Integrated Resource Plan on Tuesday following a public planning process that began nearly a year ago.

The plan has been filed with utility regulators and is designed to provide reliable electric service at the lowest cost possible, according to company officials.

"This plan provides more diversity in the energy we use, which helps us keep electricity prices low for customers and improves the economies of our states," said Cindy Crane, president and chief executive officer of Rocky Mountain Power.

"The proposal is a major investment that will produce more jobs, provide a stronger tax base and build transmission lines that will deliver reliable energy for years to come," Crane said.

The plan includes:

• Upgrading more than 900 megawatts of existing wind turbines with larger blades and new technology that will increase energy production anywhere from 14 percent to 32 percent.
• Beginning construction on the Gateway West 500-kilovolt transmission line from Medicine Bow, Wyoming, and the Jim Bridger Power Plant in southwest Wyoming to enable additional wind generation. The new power line is expected to be in service by 2020.
• Building up to 1,040 megawatts of new solar between 2028 and 2036, with 77 percent of that power intended for construction in Utah.

The plan includes an emphasis on continued improvements in energy efficiency, which Rocky Mountain Power anticipates will meet 88 percent of energy growth needs over the next decade — a jump of 2 percent from the forecast in 2015.

The company took advantage of production tax credits in December 2016 to repower existing wind facilities with the latest technology, including longer blades.

Under the plan, the repowered wind facilities will produce more zero-emission energy for a longer period of time and at reduced operating costs.

During the next two decades, Rocky Mountain Power's parent company, PacifiCorp, anticipates the retirement of 3,650 megawatts of existing coal capacity, including a Wyoming unit at Naughton set to idle by the end of 2018.

The decision to retire, however, comes as the utility evaluates emerging technologies that could extend the life of the coal-fired power unit if it can be proven to be cost-effective for ratepayers.

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Other long-range retirements of coal-fired electrical generation include two units at the Huntington Power Plant in Emery County, which could be closed by the end of 2036, though the plan stresses the commitments for retirement are not firm.

The plan does not anticipate adding selective catalytic reduction equipment to two Utah power plants, which the company says would add hundreds of millions of costs to customers' power bills.

The emissions reductions equipment has been a source of controversy regarding Utah's compliance with the Environmental Protection Agency's regional haze rule at the Hunter and Huntington power plants.

Environmental groups have sued to ultimately force the installation of the equipment.

“It’s baffling Rocky Mountain Power is planning for the future by acting as if it can defy current federal law which requires it to dramatically reduce Utah’s coal power plants emissions,” said Matt Pacenza, executive director of the clean-energy activist organization HEAL Utah.

Pacenza noted that Rocky Mountain Power's plan indicates it will keep its coal power plants burning in Utah until 2036 — or longer — even as it takes other facilities in neighboring states offline sooner.

“The public repeatedly says it wants the utility to move much more urgently to embrace innovative, clean energy,” he said.

The environmental group also pointed out that the utility has projected what HEAL Utah describes as a "modest" decrease in carbon emissions over the next 20 years.

But Rocky Mountain Power spokesman Dave Eskelsen said critics such as HEAL Utah will only be happy if the utility stops burning fossil fuels altogether and immediately.

"That's not realistic," he said.

Jon Cox, Rocky Mountain Power's vice president of government affairs, said the company's $3.5 billion investment in renewable energy is not "chump change."

Sen. Mike Lee and Rep. Jason Chaffetz, both R-Utah, are trying to legislatively scrap the regional haze rule for Utah, introducing before Congress a resolution of disapproval to force federal regulators to reconsider its implementation.

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