Regional Power Planning in the Pacific Northwest

The U.S. government is modifying hydropower operations on the lower Snake and lower Columbia rivers, providing more hours of spill in the spring and curtailing spill operations in August. In preparation for an upcoming adequacy assessment, Council staff incorporated these changes in modeling to understand the impact to power generation.

Power demand forecasts are showing significant increases in the Pacific Northwest over the next five years, and the Council is closely monitoring the region’s progress on key targets from its 2021 Power Plan and analyzing whether that will ensure that the power supply is keeping pace.

The Northwest River Forecast Center says the runoff and water supply forecast is well below normal in the north of the basin, but above normal in the south.

Meeting the Pacific Northwest’s growing need for power with a shifting mix of energy resources will be a major undertaking on its own. Balancing supply with demand, however, is only one part of the challenge for the Council’s power planning efforts.