20040308Comments.pdf

Jean Jewell
From:
Sent:
To:
Subject:
Ed Howell
Sunday, March 07 , 2004 10:51 PM
Jean Jewell; Ed Howell; Gene Fadness; Tonya Clark
Comment acknowledgement
WWW Form Submission:
Sunday, March 07 , 2004
10:50:39 PM
Case: IPC E-04-
Name: Gerry FleischmanStreetAddress: 5437 Hickory Run Place
City: Boise
State: ID
ZIP: 83713
Home Telephone: [phone]
E-Mail: gfleisch986~hotmail. com
Company: Idaho Power Companymailinglistyesno: yes
Comment description: This contract for the purchase of wind energy by Idaho Power from
Uni ted Materials of Great Falls , Inc , may be good for the parties , but it has several
drawbacks which if they were to be allowed to set precedence , are not in the long-term
best interests of Idaho Power Company or its customers. As Stuart Scott , co-proprietor of
the Camas Prairie Winery in Moscow said in an article in the March 2004 issue of IDAHO
magazine
, "
I try not to always drink my own wine , because if you do that , you start to
think that your wine is what wine is supposed to taste like " With this contract , Idaho
Power appears to be drinking too much of its own wine.
The clauses in the contract meant to assure Idaho Power of a reliable supply of power do
not do this at the highest level achievable , do not help match the supply of power to
Idaho Power s needs and are , from the perspective of wind power developers , puni ti ve say the least.
Wind power is extremely capital intensive relative to other energy sources and , as such
is extremely sensi ti ve to proj ected cash flow variability. Clauses which increase the
expected or possible variation of cash flows , will decrease the likelihood of wind power
being financed and , therefore , developed in Idaho. While developing wind power is not the
primary goal of the Idaho PUC , keeping power affordable should be.
Its goal should be to do the best it can to ensure the long term supply of high value
electrici ty, that is electricity that's available when the customers need it so as to not
constrain their abilities to compete in global markets. I feel this can best be done by
creating our own factors of competi ti ve advantage in electricity supply. This means
developing our own resources and not depending on something over which we have no control
such as the price of natural gas. Wind is a viable resource in Idaho , but it has unique
characteristics. One is that it is intermittent. This is a far different thing than beingunreliable, and many of the clauses in the contract are meant to assure supply, something
over which the wind developer s only control , is the maintenance of the wind power
generating equipment. It has no control of the energy supplied to a wind farm by the wind.
From the perspective Idaho Power s needs , combined cycle natural gas and coal-fired power
plants are no better than wind power. They supply a base load power , just as does wind in
this contract. In article 6.2 Net Energy Amounts , other than that each month's having a
different delivery amount , wind is still base load , the same as coal or combined-cycle
natural gas. The fact that wind varies on a minute-to-minute , hour-to-hour and day-to-daybasis, does not make it different from coal and combined-cycle natural gas in the
contribution to Idaho Power s ability to supply its loads. The surety of supply is as good
from wind in this contract as it is from the other resources.
Why is this a problem for Idaho Power? In some ways it isn t. Idaho Power needs energy,
capacity and peaking capacity. Which of the resources supplies these needs best? The
answer is hydropower. It can , and does , supply all three. I f hydropower can supply allthree, why not develop more of it. Probably the biggest reason is lack of water. But if
you can get low cost energy, you can store water and use it when you need the power. And
wind is low-cost energy.
Al though it does not say so in the contract , there are several items which supply thisshaping and storage" service to United Materials and to Idaho Power. In 10.1 Scheduled
Net Energy Deliveries the contract asks for monthly and daily schedules of the energy to
be delivered. This does not do Idaho Power any good. Ten megawatts , plus or minus , is
wi thin the "noise" range for control of the Idaho Power Control Area. The balance is
supplied by controlling the gates on one of Brownlee Dam s turbines. In other words , it
costs Idaho Power nothing to take in this power. Why should the wind proj ect developer be
heavily burdened to supply power at a given time and amount when it has no bearing on what
Idaho Power needs.
This is not to say that there are not costs associated with taking wind power into a
system. One factor is that it is base load in the sense that it can supply a certain
amount of energy per month , but it is dispatchable to supply different amounts each hour
or every two minutes as do the Brownlee hydroturbines. Nor are the Jim Bridger , Valmey and
Boardman coal-fired power plants. The problem with wind power as with other base load
energy resources , is that it does not adjust to handle variations in daily, monthly,weekly, seasonal loads. And this , the ability to follow load , in addition to just plain
energy, is what Idaho Power needs.
I have heard that the United Materials ' wind plant will install renewable liquid fueledgenerator sets to make sure that it meats the contract deli very requirements. The capital
cost and maintenance of this equipment is not zero. In fact , for the amount of power it
will generate , the cost must be extremely high. It would be far better for all parties
concerned , and that includes me as customer of Idaho Power , that the money that United
Materials is spending on daily, monthly, and annual energy production predictions , the
daily redelivery of power by the transmission entity, the capital , operation and
maintenance and fuel costs of the "insurance" generation system, be paid to Idaho Power so
Idaho Power can upgrade and improve facilities that can provide peaking power.
It is another fallacy that wind cannot provide peaking power. Tom Osborne , an engineer
wi th Bonneville Power Administration , said that , had there been more water behind the
dams , the BPA could have supplied considerably more peaking power to California in 2001.
Had more wind power been on-line , it could have substituted for hydropower during times
when the wind was blowing, saving water for peaking service. In other words , wind power
can tremendously upgrade the ability of hydropower to supply peaking energy and therefore
can upgrade the value of Idaho Power s existing hydropower facilities.
The key to making use of Idaho s indigenous energy resources , (this does not includenatural gas) is energy storage. The state and Idaho Power need energy storage. In global
competi tion , the initial stock of factors , (water , minerals , etc) is not as important as anation, region s or state s ability to continually upgrade those factors. Since Idaho
has such a large energy resource in the wind , the way to upgrade our system, is to take in
wind and upgrade the existing system to make use of wind. This means energy storage.
Having individual wind farms supply their own backup energy resources is not nearly as
cost effective or as useful as Idaho Power building what it needs to upgrade the entire
system to not only take in wind but to provide a far-more robust system for every
generating resource. This way, Idaho Power can control the deliver of this power to meet
its loads. It cannot control the supplemental system being built by United Materials to
meet peak requirements. Watching the monitors and graphs in Idaho Power s power Control
Area Control Room leaves little doubt that the strength of Idaho Power s system is its
dams , reservoirs and hydroturbines. It is they that follow the minute by minute , daily and
monthly load changes. We need more of this , and who better to pay for it than a charge
back to wind power generators.
This is a critical juncture. We can either start thinking in terms of upgrading our power
system, or simply relying on imported natural gas that can t be controlled by anyone in
Idaho. Once we have new frame of reference , a new leadership for upgrading the system
there are many possibilities that may emerge. While it is true that fish and other
requirements dictate much of the flow of water through our state , with the right framework
through which to view the overall system, there is no telling what possibilities for
energy storage are out there. Some possibilities that come to mind are: Owyhee Dam andreservoir, Deadwood , Arrowrock , and Salmon Falls dams and reservoirs , perhaps even Fish
Creek Reservoir. Without the leadership to look for these resources , they won t be found
or developed.
The paymentsupgrading ofresources at
is of higher
from wind power generators would go into a fund that would be used for the
Idaho Power system s ability to store energy, to take it in from base-load
times when the value of this resource is lower and return it when the energy
value.
In any case , accepting the
must be taken care of with
to make the entire network
wind and hydropower. These
assertion of that wind power has direct additional costs that
every 10 MW wind proj ect , removes a potential source of funding
stronger. There are considerable benefits to the combination of
need to be explored and developed , not ignored.
In the long run , Idaho will be better off if it creates its own sources of power rather
than relying on sources it cannot control.
This contract makes it appear that Idaho Power has been "drinking too much of its own
wine. "
Transaction ID: 372250.Referred by: http: I Iwww.puc. state. id. usl scripts/polyform. dIll ipuc
User Address: 216.222.108.253
User Hostname: 216.222.108.253
Jean Jewell
From:
Sent:
To:
Subject:
Ed Howell
Saturday, March 06 , 2004 9:22 AM
Jean Jewell; Ed Howell; Gene Fadness; Tonya Clark
Comment acknowledgement
WWW Form Submission:
Saturday, March 06 , 2004
9:21:55 AM
Case: IPC-E-04-
Name: ben hippIeStreetAddress: po box 1548
City: mccallState: id
ZIP: 83638
Home Telephone: [phone]
E-Mail: bhip~spro. net
Company: idaho powermailinglistyesno: yes
Comment description: I am in facvor of wind power. I am in favor of the proposal to
allow Idaho Power to recover costs of the energy from the United Material of Great Falls
9 megawatt wind farm.
Idaho Power needs to increase the percent of power that comes from renewable sources.
This wil be a good investment so the company has more options next time there is a
dramatic increase in costs of electric energy. Besides , renewable energy reduces the
amount of green house gases released to the atmosphere , and it reduces our reliance on
foreign oil and natural gas.
Transaction ID: 36921.Referred by: http: I Iwww.puc. state. id. usl scripts/polyform. dIll ipuc
User Address: 207.70.228
User Hostname: 207.70.228