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Released October 04, 2021 | SUGAR LAND
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Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--PacifiCorp (Portland, Oregon) in September made a significant update to its long-term power resource portfolio: Its 20-year integrated resource plan (IRP) for the six Western states where it operates envisions significantly less wind and solar power compared to its 2019 IRP, significantly more energy storage, new nuclear power, and three new transmission lines.
Specifically, compared to PacifiCorp's 2019 IRP, this year's plan envisions 672 megawatts (MW) less solar power, 972 MW less wind power, 3,381 MW more storage, 1,500 MW of "advanced" nuclear power, and as much as 4,030 MW more energy efficiency and direct load control projects.
In its 2019 IRP, PacifiCorp, a unit of Berkshire Hathaway Incorporated (NYSE:BRK.A) (Omaha, Nebraska), provided a capital cost estimate to deliver all of the projects in that plan; the sum was $17.3 billion. But the company did not provide a capital cost estimate to implement all of its "preferred" resources in its 2021 IRP.
"The planning environment has continued the trend of the last three or four years, where the economics of wind and solar, and now energy storage, have become even more favorable compared to other generation resources," PacifiCorp spokesperson Dave Eskelson said in an interview with Industrial Info Resources.
Eskelson explained that PacifiCorp follows a two-step process in developing its long-range resource portfolio: In odd-numbered years, it updates its IRP, and on the following even-numbered years, it issues a request for proposals (RFP) to procure the resources that would fulfill the prior year's IRP. For more on PacifiCorp's 2019 IRP and 2020 RFP, see June 15, 2020, article - PacifiCorp Readies Multibillion-Dollar RFP for New Generation. The IRP only identifies types of resources, and aggregate amounts of capacity sought. It can't produce a cost estimate until it receives responses to its RFP. He said the company expects to issue an RFP next year to procure the types of resources outlined in the 2021 IRP.
Notwithstanding whatever capital projects PacifiCorp might commit to as a result of its 2021 IRP, Industrial Info is tracking about $1.68 billion of PacifiCorp projects, mainly transmission projects and environmental compliance projects across its six-state territory. The company serves about 2 million customers through its two subsidiaries, Pacific Power (Portland) and Rocky Mountain Power (Salt Lake City, Utah).
Over the next two decades, the PacifiCorp 2021 IRP lays out a preferred portfolio of capital projects that it said represented the best way to "achieve a clean, resilient and affordable energy future that leverages the abundant, diverse, clean energy resources that the West can offer through a modernized and expanded grid." While the company has not yet named or identified the specific generation projects it seeks to build, in aggregate they are:
Click on the images at right to see PacifiCorp's planned growth in solar and wind to 2040, and its planned growth in storage to 2040.
To bring this clean generation to its customers, PacifiCorp also proposed three new transmission projects:
The company also envisions a ramp up of customer programs: It hopes to lower load by 4,290 MW using energy-efficiency programs and another 2,448 MW using direct load control programs.
The IRP, developed over the last 18 months with extensive stakeholder participation, will lower CO2 emissions by 74% by 2030 compared to a 2005 baseline. The previous IRP, issued in 2019, would have lowered CO2 emissions by 50% by 2030 off a 2005 baseline. By 2050, the planned changes to PacifiCorp's portfolio of physical assets will lower its CO2 emissions by 98% compared to its 2005 baseline.
Click on the image at right to see PacifiCorp's planned CO2 emissions reduction through 2050 compared to a 2005 baseline.
Over the last two years, to lower CO2 emissions from its portfolio, PacifiCorp retired the coal-fired Unit 4 of the Cholla Power Station in Joseph City, Arizona, and converted the coal-fired Naughton Unit 3 peaker in Kemmerer, Wyoming, to burn gas.
"Our customers depend on us to provide safe, reliable, affordable power every day," Rick Link, PacifiCorp's vice president of Resource Planning and Acquisitions, said in a statement September 1 when the IRP was released. "Our Integrated Resource Plan is designed to determine the lowest-cost options for customers, adjusting for risks, future customer needs, system reliability, market projections, and changing technology."
Regarding its planned foray into "advanced" nuclear power, the PacifiCorp IRP said this: "A developer of an advanced nuclear reactor, TerraPower, has received support from the Department of Energy to construct a demonstration plant for its Natrium technology. TerraPower is investigating the opportunity to site Natrium at a retiring coal plant in Wyoming. The project promises many benefits to PacifiCorp including a 24/7 reliable source of clean energy with embedded storage, safety, cost and reduced spent fuel advantages while providing an employment transition opportunity for our existing coal employees and an economic boost to the community where they reside."
PacifiCorp's preferred portfolio would retire 14 of its 22 coal units by 2030, and 19 by 2040, in part because of the costs of these facilities as well as the decreasing costs of competing resources. These planned coal retirements and peaker conversions will reduce its coal-fired generation capacity by 2,200 MW by 2030 and more than 4,000 MW by 2040. PacifiCorp also is considering retiring 1,554 MW of natural gas capacity by 2040.
Wyoming coal interests were disappointed, but not particularly surprised, with PacifiCorp's 2021 IRP. The company had long planned to either convert or close several coal-fired power plants in the Cowboy State. But the plan also was sharply criticized by a coalition of environmental groups. "PacifiCorp is one of the country's largest greenhouse gas polluters, which means their responsibility to act is greater than almost any other single entity in the West," Lindsay Beebe, Sierra Club's Beyond Coal senior campaign representative, said in the statement. "They don't get a gold star for doing the bare minimum."
Britt Burt, Industrial Info's vice president of research for the global Power Industry, commented, "I found PacifiCorp's sharp reduction in solar and wind, and dramatic expansion of energy storage, compared to their 2019 IRP, to be especially notable. The power market continues to be extremely dynamic. Also, the plan to include up to 1,500 MW of advanced nuclear was a little surprising, given the difficulties the industry has had with new nuclear construction. Finally, the dramatic expansion of saved megawatts from customer programs is another data point that shows, in some markets, the cheapest kilowatt-hour is the one you don't produce but instead save."
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, six offices in North America and 12 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. Follow IIR on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn.
Specifically, compared to PacifiCorp's 2019 IRP, this year's plan envisions 672 megawatts (MW) less solar power, 972 MW less wind power, 3,381 MW more storage, 1,500 MW of "advanced" nuclear power, and as much as 4,030 MW more energy efficiency and direct load control projects.
In its 2019 IRP, PacifiCorp, a unit of Berkshire Hathaway Incorporated (NYSE:BRK.A) (Omaha, Nebraska), provided a capital cost estimate to deliver all of the projects in that plan; the sum was $17.3 billion. But the company did not provide a capital cost estimate to implement all of its "preferred" resources in its 2021 IRP.
"The planning environment has continued the trend of the last three or four years, where the economics of wind and solar, and now energy storage, have become even more favorable compared to other generation resources," PacifiCorp spokesperson Dave Eskelson said in an interview with Industrial Info Resources.
Eskelson explained that PacifiCorp follows a two-step process in developing its long-range resource portfolio: In odd-numbered years, it updates its IRP, and on the following even-numbered years, it issues a request for proposals (RFP) to procure the resources that would fulfill the prior year's IRP. For more on PacifiCorp's 2019 IRP and 2020 RFP, see June 15, 2020, article - PacifiCorp Readies Multibillion-Dollar RFP for New Generation. The IRP only identifies types of resources, and aggregate amounts of capacity sought. It can't produce a cost estimate until it receives responses to its RFP. He said the company expects to issue an RFP next year to procure the types of resources outlined in the 2021 IRP.
Notwithstanding whatever capital projects PacifiCorp might commit to as a result of its 2021 IRP, Industrial Info is tracking about $1.68 billion of PacifiCorp projects, mainly transmission projects and environmental compliance projects across its six-state territory. The company serves about 2 million customers through its two subsidiaries, Pacific Power (Portland) and Rocky Mountain Power (Salt Lake City, Utah).
Over the next two decades, the PacifiCorp 2021 IRP lays out a preferred portfolio of capital projects that it said represented the best way to "achieve a clean, resilient and affordable energy future that leverages the abundant, diverse, clean energy resources that the West can offer through a modernized and expanded grid." While the company has not yet named or identified the specific generation projects it seeks to build, in aggregate they are:
- 5,628 MW of new solar resources (most paired with storage)
- 3,628 MW of new wind resources
- 6,181 MW of storage resources, including battery storage co-located with solar, standalone battery storage and pumped hydro storage resources
- 500 MW of advanced nuclear (the Natrium reactor demonstration project) in 2028, with an additional 1,000 MW of advanced nuclear over the long term
Click on the images at right to see PacifiCorp's planned growth in solar and wind to 2040, and its planned growth in storage to 2040.To bring this clean generation to its customers, PacifiCorp also proposed three new transmission projects:
- Energy Gateway South, a 416-mile project from the new Aeolus substation near Medicine Bow, Wyoming, to the Clover substation near Mona, Utah
- Energy Gateway West Sub-Segment D, a 159-mile line from the Shirley Basin substation in southeastern Wyoming to the Windstar substation near Glenrock, Wyoming
- A new, as yet unnamed, 290-mile project from the Boardman substation in north central Oregon to the Hemingway substation in south-central Idaho
- Begin the process of retiring or divesting Colstrip Units 3 and 4 in Colstrip, Montana
- Begin the process of a coal-to-gas peaker conversion of Jim Bridger Units 1 and 2 in Rock Springs, Wyoming
- Begin the process of retirement or sale of Naughton Units 1 and 2
The company also envisions a ramp up of customer programs: It hopes to lower load by 4,290 MW using energy-efficiency programs and another 2,448 MW using direct load control programs.
The IRP, developed over the last 18 months with extensive stakeholder participation, will lower CO2 emissions by 74% by 2030 compared to a 2005 baseline. The previous IRP, issued in 2019, would have lowered CO2 emissions by 50% by 2030 off a 2005 baseline. By 2050, the planned changes to PacifiCorp's portfolio of physical assets will lower its CO2 emissions by 98% compared to its 2005 baseline.
Click on the image at right to see PacifiCorp's planned CO2 emissions reduction through 2050 compared to a 2005 baseline.Over the last two years, to lower CO2 emissions from its portfolio, PacifiCorp retired the coal-fired Unit 4 of the Cholla Power Station in Joseph City, Arizona, and converted the coal-fired Naughton Unit 3 peaker in Kemmerer, Wyoming, to burn gas.
"Our customers depend on us to provide safe, reliable, affordable power every day," Rick Link, PacifiCorp's vice president of Resource Planning and Acquisitions, said in a statement September 1 when the IRP was released. "Our Integrated Resource Plan is designed to determine the lowest-cost options for customers, adjusting for risks, future customer needs, system reliability, market projections, and changing technology."
Regarding its planned foray into "advanced" nuclear power, the PacifiCorp IRP said this: "A developer of an advanced nuclear reactor, TerraPower, has received support from the Department of Energy to construct a demonstration plant for its Natrium technology. TerraPower is investigating the opportunity to site Natrium at a retiring coal plant in Wyoming. The project promises many benefits to PacifiCorp including a 24/7 reliable source of clean energy with embedded storage, safety, cost and reduced spent fuel advantages while providing an employment transition opportunity for our existing coal employees and an economic boost to the community where they reside."
PacifiCorp's preferred portfolio would retire 14 of its 22 coal units by 2030, and 19 by 2040, in part because of the costs of these facilities as well as the decreasing costs of competing resources. These planned coal retirements and peaker conversions will reduce its coal-fired generation capacity by 2,200 MW by 2030 and more than 4,000 MW by 2040. PacifiCorp also is considering retiring 1,554 MW of natural gas capacity by 2040.
Wyoming coal interests were disappointed, but not particularly surprised, with PacifiCorp's 2021 IRP. The company had long planned to either convert or close several coal-fired power plants in the Cowboy State. But the plan also was sharply criticized by a coalition of environmental groups. "PacifiCorp is one of the country's largest greenhouse gas polluters, which means their responsibility to act is greater than almost any other single entity in the West," Lindsay Beebe, Sierra Club's Beyond Coal senior campaign representative, said in the statement. "They don't get a gold star for doing the bare minimum."
Britt Burt, Industrial Info's vice president of research for the global Power Industry, commented, "I found PacifiCorp's sharp reduction in solar and wind, and dramatic expansion of energy storage, compared to their 2019 IRP, to be especially notable. The power market continues to be extremely dynamic. Also, the plan to include up to 1,500 MW of advanced nuclear was a little surprising, given the difficulties the industry has had with new nuclear construction. Finally, the dramatic expansion of saved megawatts from customer programs is another data point that shows, in some markets, the cheapest kilowatt-hour is the one you don't produce but instead save."
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, six offices in North America and 12 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. Follow IIR on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn.
