Category – Energy

2025 has been a busy year for the Council and the Power Division staff as they develop a new 20-year plan for the Pacific Northwest’s electricity grid, which is called the Ninth Power Plan. With the end of the year fast approaching – and some critical analytical milestones and decision-making points looming early in 2026 – check out this recap of the Council’s work on the Ninth Plan so far, and a timeline for what’s going to happen next.

At October’s Council meeting in Donnelly, Idaho, Power Division staff presented results of a new needs assessment that examines a simulation of the Northwest power system in 2031 under intentionally limited circumstances.

Electric cooperatives serving rural communities in the Northwest are grappling with projected future gaps between forecasted load growth and resources to meet those energy needs. Experts with Idaho National Laboratory and Idaho Power shared about their work to expand the capacity of transmission systems through grid-enhancing technologies.

At September's Council meeting in Eugene, Power Planning Director Jennifer Light explained the scope of forthcoming analysis examining different paces of resource and transmission development in the Pacific Northwest.

The Pacific Northwest continues to make progress in acquiring cost-effective energy efficiency called for in the Council’s 2021 Power Plan. In 2024, the region acquired 160 aMW of cost-effective energy efficiency savings, including 39 aMW from BPA, the Council learned during its meeting in Eugene.

Over the next two months, Council Power Division staff will be analyzing a set of hydro operations for the upcoming processes of amending the Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Program and preparing to develop the cost-effective resource strategy for the Ninth Power Plan.

At the August meeting in Portland, Power Division staff outlined methods for evaluating the potential for advancements in energy efficiency to include in the energy efficiency supply curves for the Ninth Plan. The Ninth Power Plan will cover the period from 2026-2046, and ensure that the Pacific Northwest’s power system continues to be adequate, efficient, economical, and reliable over those 20 years.

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 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.