The Council is inviting comment on this issue paper, which will eventually become part of the Fifth Power Plan currently in development.
(Comment period ended February 14, 2003. See comments received from Tom Bender and Harry Brunsdon.)
Summary
This paper forecasts the electricity demand for a group of industrial plants, mostly aluminum smelters, commonly referred to as the Direct Service Industries, or DSIs. In the past, most of these plants obtained all of their electricity supplies from the Bonneville Power Administration.
Because the amount of electricity used by the DSIs is significant in the Pacific Northwest, and because the cost and availability of electricity supplies has changed dramatically since the 1980s, Northwest aluminum smelters have struggled to remain competitive in the world market. The Council's draft forecast includes background information on the region's DSIs and their electricity demand; a straightforward model of aluminum electricity demand developed by the Council to determine the likelihood of a plant's continued operation under varying levels of aluminum and electricity prices; and an assumption for aluminum electricity demand through 2005.
