Idaho Power Eyes Wind Generation Options
Sep 13 - Idaho Business Review, The
Idaho Power's biennial plan for energy sourcing includes wind power for the first time.
Every two years, the company updates its Integrated Resource Plan for
providing power over the next decade. The 2004 version calls for more than 1,000
megawatts of new electricity over the period, including 350 MW of wind power.
Idaho Power plans to request proposals for 200 MW of wind power this fall,
spokesman Dennis Lopez said, if the state Public Utilities Commission approves
the Integrated Resource Plan.
If you have a megawatt of wind online, you can conserve water during that
time, he said, referring to hydroelectric plants. So you can balance your
portfolio with wind, and that's exactly what we intend to do.
While Idaho Power has no wind-power sources of its own, the company's
donation-funded Green Power Program buys wind-generated power to direct into the
Idaho Power grid.
The company buys about 1 MW a year from the Stateline wind farm near Walla
Walla, in eastern Washington, plus smaller amounts from wind turbine operations
between Boise and Mountain Home, and in Montana.
Wind-generated power can supplement the grid and enable power from other
sources to be conserved. But wind power can't be stored on a large scale, and
thus can't be tapped on demand to send from one place to another on the grid.
One of the downsides is that it's not a 'dispatchable' resource, Lopez said.
It's not storable, and it's also not a load-following resource like hydro where
you can open up the gates and run more water through.
Nevertheless, it's important that we look at it for part of our generation
mix, he said.
The problem is, where there is good wind, there is not immediate transmission
access, Lopez said.
Wind power generally sells for less per unit than hydropower and other
sources because it is less predictable, Idaho Public Utilities Commission
spokesman Gene Fadness said.
(Copyright 2004 Dolan Media Newswires)