Editorial: Northwest power plan builds on efficiency, conservation

With every new wind turbine erected over the Palouse or LED light bulb screwed into a socket in a Spokane home, the Northwest has proved more people producing and consuming more things is compatible with a clean environment and strong economy.

The latest plan from the Northwest Power and Conservation Council indicates that success can persist another 20 years.

The council’s seventh power plan looks ahead to 2035, when the four-state region’s population is expected to have grown to 16.7 million, and industrial output to $170 billion – both up by about one-third – yet demand for electricity will have risen at a steady rate of just 1.4 percent annually.

Almost all that new demand will be met with still wider adoption of conservation measures.

Since the council released its first plan in 1983, the region has reduced energy demand by about 6,500 megawatts, a little less than Grand Coulee Dam’s maximum output. Yet the new plan says new or improved technologies like LED lights, batteries and heat pumps have the potential to save almost one-half again as much.

The plan anticipates the closure of three coal plants feeding power to the transmission grid, excluding the four Colstrip, Montana, units that deliver electricity to Washington. Avista is a part owner of two.

But the council’s longest-serving member, Tom Karier of Spokane, says computer modeling stress-tested the system assuming Colstrip shutdowns, and the region still had a comfortable margin of electricity supply available.

Past plans have been accurate on projected electricity demand, he says, but less so on prices, which have fluctuated to the high side as the price of fuel and natural gas turbines fluctuated, and demands for more natural river flows for flushing fish downstream reduced output from dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers.

Still, the region’s hydroelectric dams and the cheap, dependable power they produce will maintain the price advantage that attracts industry, but not necessarily those as manpower-intensive as the now-dormant aluminum smelters.

Computing server farms that employ dozens instead of hundreds have replaced them as the region’s energy hogs.

Because the region is expected to need more power during the summer, when less hydropower is available, more gas turbines may be needed to fill the gap. But there is also the potential that users can be induced to reduce consumption when supplies get tight, a strategy called “demand response” that will be made possible by the increasing introduction of smart grid technology that better manages the delivery of power.

Some environmental groups are disappointed that the new plan made no allowance for the elimination of four Snake River dams, as the previous plan did, but a future with less-dependable snowpacks may make them a long-term necessity.

The groups should find solace in the 22.2 million tons of annual greenhouse gas emissions eliminated thanks to the conservation measures the Northwest utilities have implemented. The region may not be where some, including Gov. Jay Inslee, would have us, but we have come a long way.