Pacific Northwest Resource Adequacy Forum
In 2005, the Council and the Bonneville Power Administration created the Resource Adequacy Forum and tasked it to develop an adequacy standard for the regional power supply. The purpose of the standard is to provide an early warning should resource development fail to keep pace with demand growth. The current standard, adopted by the Council in 2011, limits the likelihood of a potential supply shortfall to a maximum of 5 percent.
The standard does not mandate compliance or imply any enforcement mechanisms. The assessments are not intended to apply directly to individual utilities nor are they intended to provide resource planning targets. It is anticipated, however, that analytical information generated with each assessment will provide utility planners a wealth of valuable information that can be used in their resource acquisition planning analyses.
The Council assesses the adequacy of the regional power supply annually. The latest assessment shows the power supply to be slightly inadequate by 2017 (Council document number 2012-12), assuming only existing resources and conservation levels targeted in the 6thPower Plan. The report goes on to say that adding 350 megawatts of dispatchable resource capacity brings the adequacy back to the 5 percent limit.
We encourage your participation in this process. If you wish to add your name to our email lists, please email your request to John Fazio (jfazio@nwcouncil.org).
2013 Schedule (tentative)
- January 30 - Technical Committee review of key issues
- April - Technical Committee review resource data and other key assumptions
- July – Technical Committee review preliminary results for 2018
- August – Steering Committee review preliminary results
- October (early) – Technical Committee review final results
- October (late) – Steering Committee review final results
- November – Council’s power committee review final results
- December – Council review and issue the 2018 adequacy assessment