Articles by Peter Jensen

At July’s Council meeting, Power Planning Director Jennifer Light explained the upcoming process for developing the Ninth Power Plan this summer and fall, as well as the early portion of 2026. The Council is also in the process of amending its Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Program with the goal of having a draft ready this fall and a final verison adopted in spring 2026.

At July’s Council meeting in Portland, staff from the Pacific Northwest Utilities Conference Committee discussed a new 10-year outlook they’ve produced showing regional utilities’ forecasted electricity demand and planned resources.

At July’s Council meeting in Portland, members of the Independent Science Review Panel discussed results and key findings from the Habitat Retrospective Report that the ISRP published in July. This report reviewed the Fish and Wildlife Program’s habitat restoration work in the Columbia River Basin over the past several decades.

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.

At May’s Council meeting in Pasco, Wash., the Council listened to a briefing by Amy Burke, Senior Hydrologist for the Northwest River Forecast Center, on the snowpack that built up in the Columbia River Basin this past winter and how it would affect the water supply for the upcoming seasons.

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 April’s Council meeting, managers from the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Idaho Department of Fish and Game provided forecasts for adult salmon and steelhead returns to the Columbia River Basin in 2025.

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.

After announcing in December that he would be stepping down, Executive Director Bill Edmonds confirmed his departure date of April 18. The Council also announced that Guy Norman, a former Washington Council member (2016-2023), is serving as interim executive director.