Idaho Power Amends Its 2019 IRP: No Demand Response for a Decade
Posted on March 30, 2020 by Sudeshna Pal
Tags, Energy
Idaho Power submitted an “amended” version of its 2019 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) with the Oregon Public Utility Commission at the end of January 2020. The company had stated the need to amend its original IRP (submitted in June 2019), following necessary changes in its portfolio modeling inputs. These modeling changes resulted in two modifications (see our July 23, 2019 blog for original plan provisions) in the company’s near-term action plan. These are:
- Idaho Power opted to forego the option to enter into a Power Purchase Agreement with 100MW solar from the Franklin Solar facility. Hence, this solar resource was removed from modeling and subsequent preferred portfolios.
- While the original version of the IRP had 5MW of demand response (DR) resources in the preferred portfolio starting 2026, the amended version does not include any DR resource in the preferred portfolio until 2031. Starting 2031, Idaho Power intends to add 5MW of DR resources every year until the end of the planning period.
CUB is reviewing the amended version of the Plan and will submit comments in the coming weeks. The primary area of concern for CUB is the absence of DR resources in the company’s preferred portfolio over the next decade. Demand response resources may include Direct Load Control of energy usage by installing smart meters or creating incentive-based billing, such as Peak Time Rebates. These measures help the utility trim its system peak by engaging customers. More importantly, these measures are extremely cost-effective, can prevent costs incurred in building new generation resources, save customers millions of dollars in utility bills and can help integrate renewable resources. Customers who engage in demand response are compensated for providing an energy service back to the utility, so instead of spending millions of dollars on fossil fuels (natural gas and coal), utilities send this money to customers.
Idaho Power has a goal of 100 percent clean energy by 2045. While the company plans to exit from its coal fired units progressively over the planning period, CUB finds it surprising that there is no plan to acquire DR resources complementing the coal exits. The electricity sector is undergoing a massive transformation as more and more utilities are closing coal plants and integrating an increasing amount of distributed energy resources, such as wind, rooftop solar, battery storage, and demand side resources, into its system. Among these distributed resources, DR has been identified as one of the cheapest resources that can be used in a similar fashion as battery storage to meet capacity and energy deficits created by increasing demand amidst coal plant closures (NWPCC Seventh Plan).
CUB will continue to participate in Idaho Power’s resource planning stakeholder process and engage in discussions around customer resources in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for further updates!
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04/01/20 | 0 Comments | Idaho Power Amends Its 2019 IRP: No Demand Response for a Decade