180228 Intermountain's IRP acceptance.pdf

Case No. INT-G-17-04
Order No. 33997
Contact: Matt Evans
[phone] office
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www.puc.idaho.gov

Commission accepts Intermountain Gas
Company’s Integrated Resource Plan
BOISE (Feb. 28, 2018) – The Idaho Public Utilities Commission has accepted
Intermountain Gas Company’s plan for meeting customer demand through 2021.
The Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) submitted by Intermountain Gas anticipates the utility
will grow at a faster rate than it has in recent years – by an average rate of 2.68 percent
annually throughout the five-year planning period, up from 2.2 percent.
Though the company expects its existing resources will be capable of accommodating that
growth, its 2017 IRP calls for enhancements to several pipelines and increasing reliance on
Demand Side Management (DSM), or programs aimed at managing the demand for natural
gas rather than its supply.
Regulated utilities are required to file an updated IRP with the Commission every two
years.
The document serves as a status report outlining the company’s ongoing plans for
providing adequate and reliable electric service to its customers at the lowest cost and
least risk for the next 5 years.
Inclusion in the IRP does not necessarily mean a project will be completed, only that it is
included in the utility's current plan, which evolves as circumstances warrant.
Intermountain Gas serves approximately 313,000 residential customers and 32,000
commercial customers across southern Idaho. The company is served by the Williams
Northwest Pipeline that enters southeast Idaho from Wyoming.
The utility has built several lateral lines off of that pipeline, including the 104-mile Idaho
Falls Lateral from Pocatello to St. Anthony, the Sun Valley Lateral from Shoshone to Sun
Valley, Canyon County, the State Street Lateral in Boise and the Central Ada Area Lateral.
Its 2017 IRP calls for upgrades to the State Street Lateral, a 16-mile main line that runs
from Caldwell into northern Boise, and the replacement of a high-pressure pipeline in the
Canyon County area that will increase capacity to accommodate growth in the area.
The continued, gradual replacement of approximately 5 miles of pipeline on its distribution
system that was built with a polyethylene material that is prone to cracking is also included
in the IRP, as is the replacement in 2021 of a pipeline that runs under the Snake River near
Rexburg in eastern Idaho.
Intermountain anticipates increasing reliance on DSM programs for managing the demand
for natural gas among its customers throughout the planning period, efforts it expects will
lead to lower interstate transportation costs.
The IRP also projects Intermountain’s DSM efforts to grow from 65,000 therms saved
system-wide in 2017, which was the first year of its DSM programs, to 374,292 therms
saved in 2021.
Examples of the company’s DSM programs include rebates for customers who install
energy efficient natural gas equipment, increased communication with customers via bill
stuffers and tools to help customers better understand their energy usage.
In its order accepting the IRP, the Commission encouraged Intermountain to work with
interested parties when preparing future IRPs in order to “comprehensively and
transparently” determine how to handle capacity deficits that arise when existing
resources cannot meet the projected growth in demand.
This was based on Commission’s staff’s criticism over the way capacity deficits were
addressed in the IRP.
Rather than including planned future enhancements to existing resources as existing
delivery capability, as the 2017 IRP does, the Commission encouraged the company to
conduct a transparent and robust analysis of the options available to resolve that deficit,
and to explain why a specific solution was selected.
The Commission’s order and other documents related to the case are available at
www.puc.idaho.gov. To review them, click on “Open Cases,” under the “Natural Gas”
heading and scroll down to Case No. INT-G-17-04. Or go here.