Colorado Green Building Post

It was salmon, not carbon that spurred energy conservation as a regional power planning tool in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. The region’s “green” hydropower system was threatening salmon and native tribes on the Columbia River, so the Northwest Power and Conservation Council was established in 1980 to balance power development with fish and wildlife interests.

Hydropower development in the northwest was established when congress directed the Bonneville Power Administration, in the Bonneville Project Act of 1937, to build and operate transmission lines to deliver the power from dams, and to market electricity from federal generating projects on the Columbia river system at rates set only high enough to repay the federal investment over a reasonable period of time.

Today, the Federal Columbia River Power system includes 31 dams with 20,444 megawatts of capacity. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operates 21 of the dams, and the Bureau of Reclamation operates 10.

In 1976, Bonneville’s power demand and supply projections showed that federal power supplies were running short for preference customers, and that Bonneville would no longer be able to guarantee preference customers that their load growth could be met beyond 1983. Bonneville issued a notice of insufficiency to the utilities in June of 1976. The following month, 88 public utilities signed contracts with WPPSS to build nuclear plants 4and 5. The WPPSS nuclear construction program proved to be a debacle, but it also prompted changes in regional energy policy. Mismanagement and cost overruns at the five WPPSS plants were at the root of the financial problems, but the WPPSS debacle also was a failure of electricity demand forecasting. The impetus for the nuclear construction effort lay in demand forecasts produced by the region’s utilities, through the Pacific Northwest Utilities Conference Committee, and Bonneville. The forecasts proved to be too high.

By creating a regional planning council consisting of two members from each of the four Northwest states to develop a regional plan, Congress provided a regional decision-making system. It emphasizes local control of resource development and power planning.

The states of Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington were authorized to form the Council (in the Act, Section 4.(a)(2)(A), it is called the Pacific Northwest Electric Power and Conservation Planning Council) with two representatives from each state, appointed by the governors. The Act directed the Council to draw up a plan for meeting the electrical needs of the region at the lowest possible cost. The plan must give highest priority to cost-effective conservation to meet future demand for electricity. Renewable sources of energy must be given next-highest priority in the region’s power planning, to the extent that they are cost-effective, ranking ahead of conventional thermal generating resources. Among thermal options, fuel-efficient methods of producing energy, such as cogeneration, must be given priority.

The current power plan comprises a resource development strategy to ensure the region’s future power supply is characterized by least-cost and least-risk resources. This plan recommends that the region increase and sustain its efforts to secure cost-effective conservation immediately. The Council’s analysis shows that improved energy efficiency is a resource that is lower cost than new generating options and provides a hedge against market, fuel, and environmental risks. Although conservation may result in small rate increases in the short-term, it can reduce both cost and risk in the long-term. The targets are ambitious but doable: 700 average megawatts between 2005 and 2009; and 2,500 average megawatts over the 20-year planning period.

Since the adoption of the Council’s first power plan in 1983 the region has made significant progress in acquiring conservation. The Council’s first power plan stated that the acquisition of cost-effective conservation should be used to reduce year 2002 loads by 5 to 17 percent depending upon the rate of economic growth experienced in the region. The plan called on Bonneville and region’s utilities to develop and implement a wide array of conservation programs. The plan also called on state and local governments to adopt more energy-efficient building codes. It called on the federal government to adopt national energy efficiency standards for appliances and to upgrade existing efficiency standards for new manufactured homes.

In response to the Council’s first power plan, the Bonneville Power Administration and the region’s utilities initiated conservation programs across all economic sectors. Between 1980 and 2002, it is estimated these programs acquired 1,425 average megawatts of electricity savings. Overall, the region’s conservation achievements have been impressive. Between 1980 and 2005, demand for power in the Northwest has been reduced by about 3,100 average megawatts through Bonneville programs, state energy codes, and federal standards. Converted to generation, that would be enough electricity for the entire state of Idaho plus western Montana.

Bonneville, the region’s utilities, and system benefits administrators have accelerated, or are accelerating, the pace of their conservation programs. Based on preliminary returns to the Regional Technical Forum’s (RTF) survey of regional conservation achievements in 2006, it appeared the Fifth Plan’s goal of 130 average megawatts for 2005 likely would be accomplished. From the survey returns received by the end of November 2006, the region acquired approximately 125 average megawatts of savings in 2005. The total Bonneville, utility, and system benefits charge administrator expenditures for conservation were just under $160 million, or about 1.7 percent of total retail revenues collected in 2005. The average utility cost of these savings was approximately $1.3 million per average megawatt.

This table summarizes the annual savings and expenditures for Bonneville, the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (Alliance),1 and the Energy Trust of Oregon2 and individual utilities that have responded to the RTF’s survey.

Savings reported by the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance decreased from 29 average megawatts in 2005 to 25 average megawatts in 2006. This reduction was due largely to changes in federal standards for residential clothes washers that were a target of one of the Alliance’s initial market transformation programs. The Alliance now is targeting even higher-efficiency machines beyond the federal standards.