The 2021 Northwest Power Plan

At the Council’s June meeting in Missoula, Power Planning Director Jennifer Light gave an update on the process of developing the Ninth Plan while noting that a key milestone has been reached. She also led a discussion of a hydro operations scenario, and Power Division staff presented the preliminary, total potential for energy efficiency and demand response for the Ninth Plan.

At the June meeting held in Missoula, the Council heard presentations from representatives of electric co-operatives serving rural communities in western Montana, about the status of operations at Libby and Hungry Horse Dams, and about the Ice Age flooding that swept through the Columbia River Basin thousands of years ago.

On April 29, the Power Division staff released a new initial forecast showing a range of potential electricity demand growth in the Pacific Northwest over the next two decades. Senior Energy Forecasting Analyst Steve Simmons, Senior Power Analyst Tomás Morrissey, and Power System Analyst Jake Kennedy led a presentation on the forecast during an online meeting of the Council.

At its April meeting in Portland, the Council set the thresholds for its resource adequacy metrics, which are intended to protect the Pacific Northwest’s power system from outages that are too frequent, too large, or too long in duration.