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Balancing Electricity Supply and Demand Is a 24/7 ConnectionsMay 2017 Cover Page 2 Page 2 Page 4 Managing the Flow Energy Planning MyAccount Helps Manage Yearly Price Changes of Electricity Process Underway Energy Use Can Go Up or Down Tending the Grid Idaho Power Balancing Operator Leader Kresta Davis-Butts leads a team of people who work around the clock to match electricity production with our customers’ energy needs. Balancing Electricity Supply and Demand is a 24/7 Job Moving electricity from where energy sources with the ups and downs Every time someone plugs in a cell it’s generated to your home or of customer demand. Imagine a large phone charger, starts an irrigation pump business requires a complex water tank with thousands of spigots or switches off a light, the demand balancing act that goes on constantly being turned on and off. on the grid — called system load — 24 hours a day, every day. Coming into the tank are hundreds of fluctuates. Often, it happens behind the hoses keeping the tank full. You have scenes, when a furnace fan turns on Electricity is a constant, powerful force control of some of those hoses — but not or a dishwasher completes its task, for that affects nearly every aspect of our all of them — and your job is to maintain example. lives. But it can’t be stored in large a constant water level in the tank. volumes, and excess energy doesn’t just The amount of energy coming on to the evaporate. It has to go somewhere. “It’s really an art. You are constantly system must match that system load balancing the system, and every every second of every day. That’s where Idaho Power’s Load Serving situation is so unique,” said Kresta In the spring, overall demand for Operations team comes in. They balance Davis-Butts, Balancing Operator Leader. a dizzying array of constantly changing electricity is relatively low across our (continued on page 2) Like us at facebook.com/idahopower • Follow us at twitter.com/idahopower (@idahopower) • Watch us on youtube.com/idahopower News Feed Balancing Electricity (continued from page 1) News Feed region, but the amount of energy Idaho Power controls many of Long-range Planning Process being generated is high. Think the resources on our system. We Enters Final Phase of all the water that has been have the ability to adjust the rolling down the Snake River amount of energy coming from Every two years, Idaho since March, spinning hydro gas or coal plants. Usually we can Power completes a 20- turbines, while spring breezes adjust the output of hydro plants, year resource plan for keep wind turbines churning, not too, although the volume of water serving our customers’ just in Idaho but throughout the going downstream this year has future power supply Northwest. limited our ability to do that. needs. This Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) is Idaho Power uses its own That’s not the case for wind and developed with input resources — 17 hydroelectric solar projects; Idaho Power is from an advisory dams on the Snake River and required to purchase all of the council representing its tributaries, three gas-fired energy these projects generate numerous customer plants and a share of output from whether it is needed or not. This groups via public three coal plants — to serve that can limit our flexibility when meetings. The 2017 IRP will be electrical demand. Energy also trying to manage the system, submitted to regulators in June. comes from large wind, solar and especially when faced with a geothermal projects that sell their growing amount of energy from The plan’s long-term focus provides time to energy to Idaho Power. Dozens these sources that literally ramp identify resource needs and new investments. of smaller projects push energy up or down in seconds. The two-year revision cycle allows us to onto the grid, as well. All of this coming and going respond to changing forecasts, technological Additional energy can be is constantly monitored and advances and other shifts in the energy market. purchased from outside of managed from a large room The result carefully considers the cost, reliability our area and delivered via full of video screens. Single and environmental responsibility of existing high-voltage transmission workstations have up to a dozen and future power supply resources. lines. Energy also moves across video monitors, and an entire Idaho Power’s system. For wall lays out Idaho Power’s idahopower.com/irp example, another utility may grid, showing the connections move electricity from the Pacific between substations and Northwest to its customers in highlighting outages and other Understand Your Energy Use Utah. potential trouble spots. with myAccount Just like Idaho Power load serving operators balance resources in real-time, you can keep an eye on your energy use anytime you want. By signing up for myAccount, you can access your account information 24/7: view your bill, request service, set up Budget Pay or complete a Home Profile to understand how you’re using energy. You can control your spending on energy and know what you are paying for, when and why. Know your house, know your use and know you are in control. To register online at the Idaho Power website, look for the “myAccount” button on the left of the top navigation panel on the home page. myAccount idahopower.com/myaccount 2 Why Prices Change Screens showing weather radar renewable developers by selling Each Year and forecasts are constantly energy into the market. To match customer prices with the being updated. The amount of The load serving operators try wind and solar energy coming to minimize that excess energy company’s costs of providing safe, reliable onto the system is displayed. while ensuring there is enough electric service, your bill changes on June The numbers tick up and down reserve power on the system to 1 each year with two price adjustments constantly as the weather make sure all of our customers that can go up or down. changes. have the electricity they need, “We manage the system with even if the wind stops blowing or Annually, Idaho Power files with the Idaho three goals: compliance, storm clouds block the sun. Public Utilities Commission (IPUC) for review reliability and economic benefit and approval of two price changes, the Fixed While all of that is going on, Cost Adjustment (FCA) and the Power Cost for the company and our operators must make sure customers,” said Chris Nebrigich, Adjustment (PCA), and must approve them energy has a path to where it’s before we can implement them. Balancing Operator Leader. needed even when a route is “Intermittent resources (wind unavailable due to unplanned and solar) make all three more and planned (maintenance) complicated.” outages. They develop day-ahead Intermittent resources make plans to ensure enough energy operating the system more is available for purchase if it’s expensive. Renewable projects needed, while also factoring in like wind and solar have a laundry list of considerations: contracts mandated by federal the market price of energy, the law, with fixed prices that cost of coal and natural gas, increase over time. Balancing regulatory restrictions on how we the system often requires us manage river flows, weather and to decrease use of lower-cost unexpected drops or spikes in resources. When the region has system load. FCA an oversupply of energy, prices “All of the operators on these desks plummet — sometimes to zero. • The FCA separates certain revenue work closely together,” Kresta collection related to fixed-cost recovery So there is little opportunity said. “It’s really a team effort.” to recoup the costs we pay to from energy sales to eliminate financial disincentives for Idaho Power to invest in efforts that promote wise use of energy, like demand-side management and energy efficiency programs. • If, because of lower energy use per customer during the prior year, we collect less than the fixed-cost per customer amount authorized by the IPUC, we’re allowed to collect the difference through a surcharge. • If, because of higher energy use per customer during the prior year, we collect more than the authorized amount, we’re allowed to refund the difference to customers through a credit. The FCA is filed each year on or near March 15 and only affects residential and small general service customers. (continued on page 4) 3 Price Change (continued from page 3) PCA The PCA is an annual filing that updates customer prices to reflect the current variable costs and benefits of operating the electric system. Neither Idaho Power nor its shareholders receive any financial return on the PCA; money collected from the surcharge can be used only to pay power-supply expenses. • It forecasts anticipated fuel costs, costs to purchase power and customer benefits from sales of surplus energy for the coming April through March. • It “trues up” last year’s forecasted costs with the costs actually incurred Coming from Mike the previous April through March. Prices are established by adding the forecast and the true-up to align actual collection with actual costs. Customers also benefit when we sell surplus energy to the wholesale market when we have more than we need to serve customers. The money from those sales is deducted from our power-supply costs and reduces the prices customers pay through the PCA. The PCA is filed each year on or around April 15 and applies to all customers. idahopower.com/rates Connections is published monthly to inform From The Electric Kitchen May 2017 our customers about services we provide, programs we offer and industry issues impacting Side Dish our service area in southern Idaho and eastern Easy Spicy Green Beans Oregon.
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