Energy demand is climbing across southern Idaho and the Magic Valley, and Idaho Power expects peak demand to jump by nearly 1,000 megawatts by the end of the decade.To help meet that need, the utility is proposing a natural gas power plant near Milner Dam.HEAR THE DETAILS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE PROPOSED NATURAL GAS PLANT NEAR MURTAUGH: Idaho Power proposes gas plant near Milner DamIdaho Power's Brandon Prescott was on the team that helped select the site for the proposed plant, called the South Hills Power Plant."South Hills Power Plant came about as a result of that due diligence to make sure that we found all the right attributes to be able to potentially site a new gas project," Prescott said.The rural location already has access to a natural gas pipeline and the electrical grid that serves hydro generation from Milner Dam.The new plant would feature 12 natural gas engines capable of producing 222 megawatts of energy enough to power about 178,000 average homes. By comparison, Milner Dam hydro produces up to 59 megawatts.The South Hills Power Plant is one of three new natural gas plants proposed for southern Idaho. The engines can reach full power in under 5 minutes."With these, we have the ability to turn them on or off, we can ramp them up, we can ramp them down, so you provide a lot of flexibility into the system," Prescott said.The plants can also quickly adjust output to help balance other energy sources, including the 400 megawatts of solar installed since 2023."So all of those combined are just now keeping up with that load again to make sure that we're able to keep the lights on, keep the system reliable, but it is a number of gas plants that we are working on to be able to meet the demand that we know will continue into the future," Prescott said.Some have questioned whether the new power would be exported out of state rather than serving local customers. Prescott addressed that concern directly."We're seeing load growth across all sections: residential, manufacturing, mining, irrigation, small business, small commercial, large commercial across-the-board throughout southern Idaho and in the Magic Valley we're seeing that load increase," Prescott said. "So these projects that we're looking to build and looking for approval for are to serve the customers within our service territory within the Magic Valley."The proposed power plant must clear several steps with the Idaho Public Utilities Commission before it can go before Twin Falls County Planning and Zoning.This story was initially reported by a journalist and has been, in part, converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy. ...read more read less