PGE Drafts its 2019 Integrated Resource Plan
Posted on June 27, 2019 by Sudeshna Pal
Tags, Energy
Portland General Electric (PGE), serving almost 44 percent of Oregon customers, has recently provided a draft of its Integrated Resource Plan (IRP). PGE will submit the final planning document in July. CUB applauds PGE on designing a resource plan that heavily incorporates renewable resources, non-greenhouse gas emitting technologies like battery and pump storage, and considerable customer participation through increased demand response, energy efficiency, and distributed generation adoption measures.
An IRP is a long-term resource plan of a utility company. The Public Utility Commission of Oregon (PUC) requires, as a part of the regulatory process, all utility companies to document their resource acquisition plans for a twenty-year period. The IRP is due every two years. The resource acquisition plan is guided by the utility’s estimated needs for future capacity and energy. Salient features of a utility’s IRP include estimations of future load on the utility’s system and the resulting energy and capacity shortfalls, if any; designing portfolios of both supply-side resources like generation and market purchase, and demand-side resources including energy efficiency, conservation and load management; and optimization analyses to locate the least cost/least risk portfolio of resource-mix. Once the optimal portfolio has been identified, the utility drafts its procurement strategies or “Action Plan” for the next five years. The IRP is an outcome of a lengthy process requiring involved participation of the company, the PUC, and stakeholders.
The IRP also represents the path that a utility is envisioning for the energy future. PGE’s 2019 IRP is clearly reflective of the company’s stride forward toward a cleaner energy future with plans to build a portfolio dominated by renewable resources. PGE’s preferred portfolio, namely, the Mixed Full Clean Portfolio, is meant to provide the best combination of expected cost and risk for PGE and its customers. PGE’s preferred portfolio is a well balanced mix of customer resources, renewable resources, and energy storage technologies. This portfolio forms the basis for PGE’s Action Plan over the next four years.
Accordingly, PGE proposes to procure all voluntary cost-effective energy efficiency, demand response, dispatchable storage, and dispatchable stand-by generation. PGE also plans to acquire 150 MW of renewable resources in 2020 through a competitive bidding process. These resources should come online by 2023. Finally, PGE’s capacity resource action involves a multi-stage procurement process whereby the company will seek non-emitting storage resources, also via a competitive bidding process, in 2021.
The IRP will be subject to an evaluation process by stakeholders and the PUC in the next few months. The evaluation process is critical in determining if PGE’s investment plans are reasonable, in the best interest of ratepayers, and consistent with Oregon’s goal of reducing the economic risk associated with carbon emissions. The PUC would then decide whether to acknowledge or not acknowledge the near-term Action Plan laid down by PGE in its IRP. CUB will keep our readers informed as this proceeding moves forward – stay tuned!
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06/27/19 | 0 Comments | PGE Drafts its 2019 Integrated Resource Plan