Work Continues on Draft 2021 Northwest Power Plan

The Council continues to work on the 2021 Power Plan and plans to release a draft for public comment late next month. The Council’s four-member Power Committee met several times in July to discuss elements of the upcoming draft plan, which has not been made available to the public, and those meetings will continue. The Power Committee’s meetings are open to the public. The next Council meeting will be August 9-11.

Information about the draft plan is posted on the 2021 Power Plan webpage.

Public hearings on the draft plan will be conducted in September and October. A schedule for the hearings will be published on the Council’s website when the dates, times, and places are set.

The power plan, updated every five years, includes several key provisions: an electricity demand forecast; electricity and natural gas price forecasts; an assessment of the amount of cost-effective energy efficiency that can be acquired over the life of the plan; and a least-cost generating resources portfolio. The plan guides BPA’s resource decision making to meet its customers’ electricity load requirements.

The Council uses a set of planning models to evaluate resources and resource strategies to understand their cost and risk tradeoffs across potential futures.

There are many unknowns when it comes to energy planning: Growing renewable generation; technological advances; and initiatives to lower carbon emissions all add to the challenge of planning for the future. To manage these uncertainties, the Council strives to identify a resource strategy that will ensure a reliable and economical power supply. The Council uses a set of planning models to evaluate resources and resource strategies to understand their cost and risk tradeoffs across potential futures. Throughout the planning process, the Council relies on participation from a wide variety of stakeholders — utilities, public interest groups, and state agencies and commissions — to give their perspectives and to vet the analyses.