Emergency measures including industrial power curtailments, reduced water spills at dams, and temporary generators are easing the Northwest’s electricity shortage, but the crisis is not over, according to the latest analysis by the Northwest Power Planning Council (NWPPC).
The NWPPC analysis incorporates weather, water, and power data through late April. Some of its findings include:
- The region should be able to meet load across the summer with some deviations from Biological Opinion hydropower operations early in the late spring and early summer, absent unanticipated power plant outages.
- The probability of having insufficient electricity to meet needs next winter is 17 percent—three times lower than usual.
- Temporary generators have boosted the region’s power supply, but they produce more air pollutants than other power plants.
- New natural gas-fired power plants in the Northwest will boost the West Coast power supply when they begin operating this summer and fall, but it is not clear that all of that power will be available to meet Northwest needs.
- The region’s system of high-voltage transmission lines is stressed by high demand and the addition of new power plants.
- It should be possible to store some hydro energy this summer to improve reliability next winter.
- Industrial cutbacks have reduced demand for power, but they’ve also cost the region thousands of jobs.
The full report is available at the NWPPC Web site.
