Opinion: Plotting the Northwest’s path to cleaner, reliable energy - OregonLive

Richard Devlin

Devlin, a former Oregon state legislator, is the outgoing chair of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.

Most of us take electricity for granted. As long as you have power, you don’t think about where it comes from. But wildfires that briefly shut down high-voltage transmission between the Northwest and California and the June heat dome that drove up demand for power to run air conditioners underscored how critically we depend on a reliable electricity supply.

At the same time, the need to reduce carbon emissions from power plants that burn coal and natural gas could not be clearer. Recognizing climate change as an urgent priority, Gov. Kate Brown last summer signed into law a suite of bills to reduce such emissions and enhance energy-efficiency programs, while addressing the disproportionate impacts felt by communities of color.

These principles have guided development of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s Draft 2021 Northwest Power Plan – a regional roadmap to ensure the power supply remains efficient, reliable and adequate. I am one of Oregon’s two appointees to the eight-person council and serve as chair. We revise the plan every five years, looking 20 years into the future. We assess demand for power and recommend least-cost resources (both monetary and environmental) to meet the anticipated need. The council has released its draft plan, available on www.nwcouncil.org, and is accepting public comments through Friday, Nov. 19.

New renewable energy plants are being built throughout the West. The power from these renewables – mostly wind and solar – is inexpensive and, as a result, the power supply is becoming increasingly low-carbon and low-cost. While some plants have enough battery storage to provide energy overnight, our challenge is to maintain a reliable and adequate power supply as we turn increasingly to these sources.

West Coast electricity comes from hundreds of interconnected generators. It’s one big machine that stretches from British Columbia to Baja Mexico, providing power both for local consumption and for sharing throughout the West as demand rises and falls. Our analysis shows that we will have an adequate power supply if the recommendations in the draft power plan are implemented and we account for these interregional transfers.

Thanks in large part to direction in the council’s power plans, improved energy efficiency is now the second-largest component of the regional power strategy behind hydropower. Over the last four decades, demand for power in the Northwest has been reduced by 7,200 average megawatts – equal to the average annual power consumption of six cities the size of Seattle. The draft plan sets goals for additional energy efficiency to be achieved by utilities, appliance makers and others and calls for adding 3,500 megawatts of renewable resources (primarily solar) by 2027. Currently, wind and solar together total about 10,000 megawatts – about 11% – of the regional power supply.

We expect large amounts of renewable generation will be built outside our region, creating opportunities to import electricity inexpensively. In addition, the region still will have a large system of hydropower and thermal generators -- natural gas and nuclear -- to help transition to a cleaner energy future.

Finally, the council’s plan supports examining inequities in our power infrastructure that have left low-income neighborhoods more susceptible to extreme weather. The council recommends holding workshops to explore the problem and identify potential energy-efficiency investments.

Never in the 40-year history of the council have we seen such dramatic changes in the future power supply as those we address in the draft power plan. But we are confident that the strategy in the plan will lead to a cleaner, less expensive and more equitable regional power supply.

Share your opinion

Submit your essay of 500-600 words on a highly topical issue or a theme of particular relevance to the Pacific Northwest, Oregon and the Portland area to commentary@oregonian.com. Please include your email and phone number for verification.

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