Continued customer growth and increasing demand for electricity across the company’s service area in addition to changes in regional energy markets has prompted a need for additional resources to meet demand and maintain system reliability. The company intends to release a request for proposals near the end of 2021.
For the second time this year, Idaho Power has issued a formal notice of intent to seek proposals for new resources to help the company meet the growing demand for electricity in summer evening hours, when demand is highest.
The upcoming request for proposals will solicit resources to come on-line in 2024 and 2025 to meet identified capacity deficits of 85 megawatts (MW) and 125 MW, respectively. Idaho Power is currently evaluating the results of the company’s previous request to add peak capacity resources in 2023. A megawatt is the amount of energy needed to power about 770 average-sized homes in Idaho Power’s service area.
Idaho Power will accept proposals for all types of additional resources that can meet the peak summer demand, including renewables and battery storage. The company intends to accept multiple proposals representing a diversity of resource types and bid structures.
Idaho Power currently serves more than 600,000 customers in southern Idaho and eastern Oregon, a region that continues to experience some of the fastest growth in the nation. The company anticipates sustained growth in demand for electricity, which will require new resources to serve customers and maintain system reliability.
Additionally, recent changes in the regional transmission markets have constrained the transmission system outside Idaho Power’s service area and significantly impacted the ability to import energy from western market hubs into Idaho Power’s system.
The company is working toward building the Boardman to Hemingway 500-kilovolt transmission line that will enable the import of energy from the Pacific Northwest as soon as 2026.
