Power Surge

Avista Corp. is planning on investing $125 million in its first wind farm in eastern Washington.

Two local power providers that have played a key role in promoting the generation of clean energy as part of an earlier state-sponsored initiative now stand to benefit from stimulus spending by the federal government. Both plan to continue their surge in investments in electricity generation and transmission.

During the next five to seven years, Spokane-based Avista Corp. and Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) of Portland will invest upward of $2 billion combined in energy-infrastructure improvements throughout Washington. Much of the work centers on adding and improving environmentally friendly energy generation, in part to meet the requirements of Initiative 937. To meet that voter-approved resolution, large power companies statewide must obtain 15 percent of their energy from renewable resources by 2020.

Avista has nearly doubled its annual infrastructure investment to $200 million in 2008 from $108 million in 2003. CEO Scott Morris says projects the company has in the pipeline will ensure continued expenditures at that elevated level for several more years.

“With [hydroelectric dam] upgrades and new wind energy, we’ll be able to meet the initiative’s requirements easily,” Morris says.

Avista’s most imminent projects involve upgrades at its hydroelectricity dams, both along the Spokane River in Washington and the Clark Fork River in northern Idaho and western Montana. All of those dams have turbines that are decades old. Those will be replaced with new turbines that are more efficient and can generate more power.

The incremental increases in hydropower production count as green energy under I-937, Morris says. In general, hydroelectricity is considered renewable in its own right, and Avista’s dams account for about 50 percent of all of the company’s energy production. As the law is presently written, however, Avista’s existing hydropower won’t count toward the 15 percent minimum, only increases in production from those facilities will.

Regardless, Morris contends that Avista—named Washington Water Power Co. for most of its 110-year history—can make the transition to green-energy sources smoothly because of its hydropower roots.

“We’re very comfortable operating in this new green world because we’ve always been green,” he says.

Avista also plans to invest about $125 million in its first wind-energy facility in eastern Washington. The company initially had intended to have that 50-megawatt project on line by the end of 2011 but decided last year to push back the timetable to 2014 with the expectation that the construction costs will decrease as the wind-energy market matures. During the next 20 years, Avista expects to build or acquire some 350 megawatts of wind energy in its service territory.

The firm, however, is examining closely wind-energy tax credits included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that President Barack Obama signed into law in February. Avista might move forward with its wind project sooner than expected to take advantage of the stimulus bill’s tax credits. It also is looking into other tax credits, grants and loan guarantees included in the bill.

Meantime, the Bonneville Power Administration, which generates power for utilities throughout the Pacific Northwest, has four expansion projects proposed for the next seven years that will cost nearly $1 billion.

The stimulus act is one major reason the nonprofit federal electric utility can confidently move forward with its planned power-transmission expansions, BPA spokesman Doug Johnson says.

The act gives BPA an additional $3.25 billion in borrowing authority. Consequently, BPA plans to start work this July on its $246-million McNary-John Day project, which involves extending a transmission line for 75 miles along the Columbia River. A large portion of the new line, which is scheduled to be completed in 2012, will be on the Washington side of the border. That new line is expected to transmit 870 megawatts of energy. Of that, 700 megawatts will be new wind energy.

Three other proposed BPA transmission projects are slated for completion between 2012 and 2015, Johnson adds. They include a transmission line from The Dalles, Ore., to Goldendale, Wash.; the Little Goose line located east of the Tri-Cities, north of Walla Walla and west of Clarkston in southeastern Washington; and the Interstate 5 line, which will extend from Portland, Ore., to Castle Rock, Wash., roughly along the same route as I-5. “These are the lines we know we need to provide service to the customers who have requested it,” Johnson says.

Both Avista and BPA have proposed rate increases. Avista has said the price hikes will help the company pay for infrastructure improvements; BPA noted a higher rate is necessary for a number of reasons, including increased maintenance costs. 

Share this Article

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•