EVERGREEN STATE COLLEGE, Olympia — Power planning forecasts in the Northwest show trouble ahead, in spiking demand for energy, transmission worries and no quick or cheap answers.
The state and its neighbors are going to face challenges in keeping the lights on while complying with environmental mandates, including rebuilding salmon runs and meeting commitments to get off fossil fuels, a panel of experts told the Northwest Power and Conservation Council in its monthly meeting Tuesday.
The council is an interstate agency, authorized by the Northwest Power Act of 1980 and approved by the Legislatures of all four Columbia Basin states, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington. It is charged with protecting fish and wildlife, while ensuring an adequate and affordable power system.
The challenges facing the Northwest all are exacerbated by the region’s new energy hog: data centers, which make the demands of the now-defunct Northwest aluminum industry look dainty by comparison.
The Northwest is going to need 4,000 megawatts of additional generation — about 20% of the region’s current output — just to keep pace with power demand over the next five years, according to the most recent forecast by the Pacific Northwest Utilities Conference Committee, a trade association of consumer and investor-owned electricity utilities and other power industry interests. ….
Rate increases to pay for it all could hit double digits back to back for years to come, Hardy warned. “How is the region going to react to that?” …
Some see a crisis building with no answers or quick fixes. “Cost is going to be extreme; the transmission isn’t there. Keeping the lights on in the next coming years is going to be a huge challenge. I am fraught with anxiety,” said Douglas Grob, a power and conservation council member representing Montana. …
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