Northwest Council Proposes New Generation and Storage to Meet Accelerating Electricity Demand
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council has published a draft of its regional power plan, calling for 9 GW of renewables, 2.1 GW of natural gas and 5.2 GW of energy storage to meet accelerating load growth in the Pacific Northwest.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council has proposed a new regional power plan to meet the accelerating electricity demand in the Pacific Northwest. The draft plan, published on Wednesday, calls for 9 GW of renewables, 2.1 GW of natural gas, and 5.2 GW of energy storage by 2032.
The plan aims to meet the growing electricity demand, driven by data centers, transportation, buildings, and industry. According to the plan, regional electricity use is projected to grow by about 50% over the next six years and could nearly double over the plan's 20-year outlook.
The council will hold public hearings in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana in September and October before targeting final adoption by the end of 2026 or early 2027.
The proposed plan assumes no new gas plants in Oregon and limited new gas development in Washington, due to state restrictions. The council estimates the portfolio would have a fixed cost of $2.3 billion in 2032, equivalent to about 0.15% of the four-state region's $1.46 trillion gross domestic product in 2025.
The council's power division director, Jennifer Light, said the proposal was designed to identify the lowest-cost mix of resources that can meet future needs across a wide range of possible outcomes.
The plan was tested against variability in load growth, extreme weather, resource and transmission availability, and operations of the Columbia Basin hydrosystem. The council urges the Bonneville Power Administration to favor renewables for energy needs and weigh batteries against new gas plants for capacity as regional electricity demand surges.
The draft plan also proposes energy-efficiency standards for new data centers and calls for working with data center operators on flexible electricity consumption, including demand response and use of backup generation.
| Resource | Capacity (GW) | | --- | --- | | Renewables | 9 | | Natural Gas | 2.1 | | Energy Storage | 5.2 |
The council is required to review its plan at least every five years, and adopted its last power plan in February 2022.
