June's Council meeting in Helena featured presentations by Montana electric co-operatives, Bonneville Power Administration, and Power Division staff.
The U.S. government is modifying hydropower operations on the lower Snake and lower Columbia rivers, providing more hours of spill in the spring and curtailing spill operations in August. In preparation for an upcoming adequacy assessment, Council staff incorporated these changes in modeling to understand the impact to power generation.
Power demand forecasts are showing significant increases in the Pacific Northwest over the next five years, and the Council is closely monitoring the region’s progress on key targets from its 2021 Power Plan and analyzing whether that will ensure that the power supply is keeping pace.
The Northwest River Forecast Center says the runoff and water supply forecast is well below normal in the north of the basin, but above normal in the south.
Meeting the Pacific Northwest’s growing need for power with a shifting mix of energy resources will be a major undertaking on its own. Balancing supply with demand, however, is only one part of the challenge for the Council’s power planning efforts.
The public can help inform early preparations for the Council’s next power plan, and guide formation of an advisory committee on the impacts of climate change and extreme weather on the Pacific Northwest’s power system.
New data on electric vehicles, data centers, and computer chip manufacturing suggests a shifting trend. Power demand in these sectors is growing, and over the next five years this demand could grow substantially.
Directors of North Idaho utilities talk about the pressures they face: significant load growth, changing demographics, aging infrastructure, rate increases, and extreme weather events.
The 2021 Plan Resource Strategy called for the region to build at least 3,500 megawatts of renewable resources by 2027, and region has already built 3,200 megawatts since the Plan was released.
The Council’s mid-term assessment for its 2021 Power Plan reviews the region’s progress in implementing the plan, which forecasts electricity demand 20 years into the future.
