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THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, JANUARY 22, 2022
Energy groups eye clean energy strategy for Western states
By KEITH RIDLER
Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho — Two
electric utilities and a fed-
eral energy agency with mil-
lions of customers in eight
Western states have reached
a tentative agreement cen-
tered on a new energy trans-
mission line connecting
their power grids.
Idaho Power, Pacifi Corp
and the Bonneville Power
Administration announced
the
complex
proposal
Wednesday ahead of the
expected 2026 completion
of a 500-kilovolt, 290-mile
transmission line from East-
ern Oregon to southwestern
Idaho.
The entities said the
Boardman to Heming-
way transmission line will
help them meet increasing
demand and support their
clean-energy goals while
increasing the reliability and
safety of the region’s trans-
mission system. Energy will
move in both directions on
the line.
The agreement still needs
to be fi nalized and approved
by regulators.
“This arrangement paves
the way toward a promising
and economic solution for
serving all of the participants
and supports eff orts to meet
the region’s clean energy
goals,” said Kim Thompson,
Bonneville Power Admin-
istration’s vice president of
Northwest
Requirements
Marketing.
The Portland headquar-
tered Bonneville Power
Administration is a U.S.
Department of Energy
agency that markets electric-
ity generated at 31 hydro-
electric facilities operated
by the U.S. Bureau of Rec-
lamation and the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers on the
Columbia River and its
tributaries. It also markets
power from the Columbia
Generating Station, a com-
mercial nuclear facility north
of Richland, Washington.
The Bonneville Power
Administration markets the
S. John Collins/EO Media Group
The proposed Boardman-to-Hemingway power line would follow the route of an existing line that crosses Highway 86 between Baker City and the Oregon Trail
Interpretive Center.
energy to public utility dis-
tricts, municipal electric
utilities and rural electric
cooperatives in eight states.
Boise, Idaho-based Idaho
Power is a public utility that
operates as a state-regu-
lated monopoly. It has about
600,000 customers in East-
ern Oregon and southern
Idaho. Most of its energy is
produced from its 17 hydro-
electric facilities on the
Snake River and its tributar-
ies. The company plans to
phase out coal-fi red power
by 2028 and provide only
clean energy by 2045. The
new transmission line is a
key part of that strategy.
Pacifi Corp is a regu-
lated public utility with two
operating divisions, Pacifi c
Power and Rocky Mountain
Power, that combined have
about two million custom-
ers in Oregon, Washington,
California, Utah, Idaho and
Wyoming.
Pacifi Corp would bene-
fi t with the deal by improv-
ing its ability to move power
into its central Oregon ser-
vice area. It will also acquire
Idaho Power transmission
assets across southern Idaho
that will increase the compa-
ny’s ability to transfer power
between the eastern and
western parts of its service
area. The company’s long-
range planning includes
signifi cantly expanding its
wind and solar energy, and
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battery storage. The com-
pany is looking to eventu-
ally move away from coal
energy in the 2040s.
Bonneville
Power
Administration is guided
through statutes created by
Congress. Idaho Power and
Pacifi Corp are both regu-
lated by state utility com-
missions in the states they
operate as well as by the
Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission.
Notably, the transmis-
sion line connects deeply
conservative Idaho with the
more liberal Oregon. Idaho
Republican Gov. Brad Lit-
tle, a rancher, has publicly
recognized climate change,
and his recently released
proposed budget includes
money to deal with those
realities on state-owned
land.
Gov. Kate Brown, a Dem-
ocrat and member of the
Western Governors’ Associ-
ation, has pushed to improve
the region’s electric-vehicle
charging infrastructure.
Under the proposal
between the three energy
entities, Pacifi Corp will own
55% of the new transmis-
sion line and Idaho Power
45%. Bonneville Power
Administration is transfer-
ring its ownership interest
in the line to Idaho Power
and will not participate in
its construction. The power
administration will acquire
transmission service over
Idaho Power’s transmission
system, including the Board-
man-to-Hemingway line.
The
proposal
also
includes the transfer of some
assets between Idaho Power
and Pacifi Corp that each
entity said will strengthen
their systems and provide
access to key energy markets
to meet growing demand.
“This agreement solidi-
fi es and simplifi es a path for-
ward for a project that will
help us continue our centu-
ry-long tradition of reliable,
aff ordable, clean energy,”
said Mitch Colburn, Idaho
Power’s vice president of
planning, engineering and
construction.