Since the Council released its Sixth Power Plan in 2010, a lot has happened.The mid-term assessment of the plan, a blueprint to an economical and reliable power system, will take stock of the changes and how they affect the Council's
Rhonda Whiting, a Montana member and vice chair of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, assumed the chairmanship of the four-state energy and fish and wildlife planning agency this month, taking the place of Oregon member Joan Dukes who resigned
The Council has released a revised forecast for fuel prices. The important message for consumers is that the downward price forecast for natural gas should help keep electricity prices down as well.New technologies to access natural gas trapped in
Demand for electricity in the Northwest continues to recover from the recession of 2008, growing slowly but steadily by about 1.2 percent per year over last two years, according to an analysis by the Council. The Council analysis also shows
As little as thirty years ago, the only resources energy planners considered to meet future demand were coal and nuclear. People couldn't imagine any other options.Today, the Pacific Northwest uses other kinds of generation. The system is still hydro-based, with
The Council has recommended construction of a new hatchery to boost production of Snake River sockeye salmon, an endangered species, and continue a long-term effort to rebuild the population to naturally spawning, self-sustaining levels.
The growth in electricity demand from the big computer data centers that store your Facebook posts and help you search the Internet with Google or utilize Apple’s "cloud" storage is growing as anticipated in the Northwest, according to an analysis
Charlie Black is the new Director of Power Planning at the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, Chair Joan Dukes announced today. Black has 30 years’ experience working with or for Northwest utilities in power resource planning, acquisition, risk management, and
We've reported on the threat of invasive quagga mussels in an earlier post, and it looks like that threat has never been greater. Forty-one barges are set to arrive in Seattle, Washington, and they appear to be infested with the
The Council is revising upward its estimate of how much power plug-in electric vehicles will use in the future, in light of anticipated consumer response to high gasoline prices and technological advances that allow plug-in electric vehicles to travel increasingly
