Understanding Energy in Montana
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UNDERSTANDING ENERGY IN MONTANA A Guide to Electricity, Natural Gas, Coal, and Petroleum Produced and Consumed in Montana DEQ Report updated for ETIC 2009-2010 Report originally prepared for EQC 2001-2002 Table of Contents Acknowledgments ....................................................................................................page i Introduction ............................................................................................................page iii Comments on the Data ..........................................................................................page iv Glossary ........................................................................................................page v Summary.........................................................................................................Summary-1 Electricity Supply and Demand Summary .......................................................Summary-2 Electric Transmission Grid Summary ..............................................................Summary-4 Natural Gas Summary.....................................................................................Summary-6 Coal Summary ................................................................................................Summary-8 Petroleum Summary......................................................................................Summary-10 Electricity Supply and Demand in Montana..................................................................... 1 Electricity Data Tables................................................................................................... 12 Montana Electric Transmission Grid.............................................................................. 21 Natural Gas in Montana ...................................................................................... 46 Natural Gas Data Tables............................................................................................... 72 Coal in Montana ............................................................................................................ 80 Coal Data Tables................................................................................................. 88 Petroleum in Montana ......................................................................................... 96 Petroleum Data Tables...................................................................................... 106 Revised and prepared by the Department of Environmental Quality and Energy and Telecommunications Interim Committee staff for the 2009-2010 Energy and Telecommunications Interim Committee DEQ Project Coordinator: Jeff Blend ETIC Staff Coordinator: Sonja Nowakowski Authors of Statistics Jeff Blend – Natural Gas Paul Cartwright – Electricity Supply and Demand, Coal, and Petroleum Authors of Sections Jeff Blend – Natural Gas in Montana Jeff Blend – Electric Transmission Grid Paul Cartwright and Jeff Blend – Electricity Supply and Demand in Montana Paul Cartwright, Jeff Blend, Sonja Nowakowski – Coal in Montana and Petroleum in Montana i ii Introduction Energy issues continue to receive significant public attention and scrutiny in Montana. In the decade since the 1997 decision to deregulate Montana’s electricity supply, consumers have witnessed the California energy crisis, the bankruptcy and reemergence of NorthWestern Energy, dramatic increases in the price of natural gas, hundred dollar barrels of oil, serious talk of new markets and new transmission lines for Montana, and discussions of climate change and energy independence. The Environmental Quality Council first prepared this guide in 2002 and revised it again in 2004. The Energy and Telecommunications Interim Committee (ETIC) in 2009 agreed to revise the document to provide the most up-to-date background information available to policymakers and citizens alike. Special thanks should be extended to the DEQ, particularly Jeff Blend and Paul Cartwright, who were instrumental in the preparation of the information that provides the backbone of this document, and to Paul Driscoll for his review of the document. The 2010 revisions also coincide with the ETIC’s statutorily required review and potential revision of Montana’s Energy Policy. This document provides groundwork critical to the ETIC in conducting an in-depth study of energy policy. The guide focuses on historical and current patterns of energy supply and demand. These are the background facts needed to interpret past and future policies. The guide is divided into five sections. First is an overview of electricity supply and demand in Montana. The second section covers the electricity transmission system, especially how it works in Montana and the Pacific Northwest. This is the critical issue affecting access to existing markets and the potential for new generation in Montana. A third section addresses natural gas supply and demand, important in its own right and very intertwined with the electricity industry. The fourth section covers the Montana coal industry, which exists mainly to fuel the generation of electricity and whose future will depend on what happens in that industry. The final section addresses petroleum, the sector most directly affected by international events. iii Comments on the data The guide, with its focus on historical and current patterns, deals primarily with conventional energy resources. Montana continues to see renewable energy sources play a larger role, especially in electricity supply. Energy efficiency and energy conservation are also both given brief treatment, simply because such limited data is available. Public agencies, private business, and individual citizens need to keep the issues of efficiency, conservation, and renewable resources in mind as they review the conventional resources included in this document. Data for this guide comes from a variety of sources, which don’t always agree. In part this is due to slightly different data definitions and methods of data collection. The reader should always consider the source and context of specific data. As updates to the tables become available, they will be posted on the DEQ’s Website – www.energizemontana.com under “Energy Statistics”. iv Glossary General Coal Electricity Supply and Demand Natural Gas Petroleum General institutions, and by federal, state, and local governments. British Thermal Unit (Btu): A standard unit of energy equal to the quantity of Industrial Sector: Energy consumed heat required to raise the temperature of by manufacturing, construction, 1 pound of water by 1 degree mining, agriculture, fishing, and Fahrenheit (F). forestry establishments. Cogeneration or Cogenerators: A process that sequentially produces Residential Sector: Energy con- useful energy (thermal or mechanical) sumed by private household estab- and electricity from the same energy lishments primarily for space heating, sources. water heating, air conditioning, Customer Class: A group of customers cooking, and clothes drying. with similar characteristics (e.g., residential, commercial, industrial, sales Transportation Sector: Energy for resale, etc.) identified for the purpose consumed to move people and of setting a utility rate structure. commodities in both the public and private sectors, including military, Demand-Side Management: Utility railroad, vessel bunkering, and activities designed to reduce customer marine uses, as well as the pipeline use of natural gas or electricity or transmission of natural gas. change the time pattern of use in ways that will produce desired changes in the Fossil Fuel: Any naturally occurring fuel utility load. of an organic nature, such as coal, crude oil, and natural gas. End-Use Sectors: Energy use is assigned to the major end-use sectors Fuel: Any substance that, for the according to the following guidelines as purpose of producing energy, can be closely as possible: burned, otherwise chemically combined, or split or fused in a nuclear reaction. Commercial Sector: Energy consumed by nonmanufacturing Nominal Dollars: Dollars that measure business establishments, including prices that have not been adjusted for motels, restaurants, wholesale the effects of inflation. Nominal dollars businesses, retail stores, laundries, reflect the prices paid for products or and other service enterprises, by services at the time of the transaction. health, social, and educational v Renewable Energy: Energy obtained Subbituminous: A dull black coal from sources that are essentially ranking between lignite and bitumi- sustainable (unlike, for example, the nous; it is mined chiefly in Montana fossil fuels, of which there is a finite and Wyoming. The heat content of supply). Renewable sources of energy subbituminous coal ranges from 16 to include wood, waste, solar radiation, 24 million Btu per ton as received. falling water, wind, and geothermal heat. Coal Rank: A classification of coal Short Ton: A unit of weight equal to based on fixed carbon, volatile matter, 2,000 pounds. All tonnages used in this and heating value. guide are in short tons. F.O.B. Mine Price: The "free on board" Coal mine price. This is the price paid for coal measured in dollars per short ton at the Coal: A black or brownish-black solid mining operation site and, therefore, combustible substance formed by the does not include freight/shipping and partial decomposition of vegetable insurance costs. matter without free access to air and under the influence of moisture and, Surface Mine: A mine producing coal often, increased pressure and that is