Idaho Power sees coal and wind in its energy future
Natural gas is out. Coal and wind power are in.
That's the way Idaho Power Co. expects to meet Idaho's growing electricity needs
over the next 10 years.
Portions of the company's new draft Integrated Resource Plan released this month
are drawing praise from environmentalists and from industry leaders.
The plan identifies coal as the major source of new power, but there's also a
request for a healthy dose of wind and geothermal power and — unlike previous
plans — only a smattering of natural gas generated electricity.
The company also has put a new emphasis on improving its energy conservation
efforts with a goal of saving more than 100 megawatts.
"This IRP is a total sea change from the last time around," said
Bill Eddie, an attorney with Advocates for the West, a nonprofit conservation
law firm specializing in environmental issues.
In its 2002 IRP, Idaho Power was soundly criticized for not doing enough to
diversify its energy sources and provide for more conservation efforts. They
also were faulted for not allowing enough public input on the plan.
This year, the company put together an advisory committee representing large and
small customers as well as representatives from state agencies and environmental
and conservation groups to help develop the current IRP.
The company updates its IRP every two years. The plan looks forward 10 years
and tries to identify what the demand for electricity will be and where the
electricity will come from.
Idaho Power has been adding about 10,000 new customers a year and the new IRP
calls for more than 1,000 megawatts of new electricity sources over the next
decade.
"Our group doesn't support all the things it (the IRP) calls for,"
said Eddie, who served on this year's advisory committee. "But in terms of
mitigating price risk and environmental risk, it's just a huge
improvement."
Eddie said he still remains concerned that the company wants to add 500
megawatts of new coal-fired electricity generation, but he said Idaho Power had
to try and balance all the concerns of everyone on the committee.
"This IRP is the most comprehensive and the most open IRP I've ever
seen," said fellow committee member David Hawk, director of energy and
natural resources for the J.R. Simplot Co. "I can honestly say Idaho Power
didn't try to curry favor with a single group or government entity."
Unlike Eddie, Hawk is a strong advocate of coal power because of its
relatively stable price and adequate supplies.
Although he expects that there could be some debate over the cleanliness of
coal, Hawk said the industry is burning it cleaner, and there could be
additional advancements in technology before Idaho Power would need to build a
coal-fired power plant. According to the IRP, Idaho Power doesn't anticipate
using new coal for power production before 2011.
Notably missing from the latest IRP is a significant amount of power from
natural-gas fired plants.
Karl Bokenkamp, general manager of power supply planning for Idaho Power, said
the volatility of natural gas prices and concerns about supply no longer make it
a good source of fuel to provide large amounts of electricity.
Bokenkamp said Idaho Power and the committee came up with 12 different possible
portfolios of power and chose the portfolio that best balanced cost, supply and
environmental concerns.
The IRP anticipates that the new power sources would likely be built in
Idaho. Constraints on the electrical transmission system often make it difficult
for Idaho Power to bring in electricity from outside the state, Bokenkamp said.
The largest source of new power — 500 megawatts — would come from new
coal-fired plants. No details have been worked out as to how many plants would
be needed or where they would be located. Another 450 megawatts would come from
a mix of wind power, 350 megawatts, and geothermal power, 100 megawatts.
Bokenkamp said the company plans to put out a request for proposals this fall
for an initial 200 megawatts of wind power and a 100-megawatt geothermal source.
Idaho Power's decision to move more toward wind power comes at a time of growing
interest. There's no major wind power project under construction or operating in
the state now, but there are several projects in various stages of planning.
Mike Heckler, a spokesman for Boise-based Windland Inc., which is planning to
build a 200-megawatt wind power project in the Cotterel Mountains south of
Burley, said his company is interested in Idaho Power's request for proposal and
says it should be a boost to Idaho's fledgling wind power industry.
"I think having the utilities recognize the cost effectiveness of wind legitimizes it," Heckler said. "We'll see more interest in wind as the years go on."
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