The powerhouse at the Yelm Hydroelectric Project operated by Centralia City Light, which generates about 30 percent of the electricity used by City Light customers.
Ambitious clean energy legislation passed by both chambers of the Washington Legislature this spring is unlikely to have an immediate impact on Lewis County residents, but has leaders of local utilities wary about what it means for future growth and development.
The state House passed an amended version of Senate Bill 5116 last week, which requires electric utilities to eliminate coal-fired resources from their operations by the end of 2025, make sales of electricity-generating greenhouse gasses carbon neutral by 2030 and sets a goal of making all generation of electricity in Washington carbon-free by 2045.
Chris Roden, general manager of the Lewis County Public Utility District, has been active in providing testimony and feedback during the ongoing legislative session in Olympia. He shares concerns voiced by other managers about how the legislation will impact the long-term reliability and capacity of the power grid.
“What I can say using a broad brush is that it will be really difficult for a utility, including ours, to permit new resources and anything to do with natural gas generation at any level in the state of Washington,” Roden said. “And it’s going to be difficult to potentially serve new, large loads. We do have an existing fleet of carbon-free resources we’re proud of … but as we grow, attract and retain customers, it’s going to become more troublesome to find ways to fill their needs.”
The legislation is a cornerstone of Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee’s push to address climate change. It has drawn criticism from Republican legislators such as state Rep. Richard DeBolt, R-Chehalis, who tried to introduce an amendment that would have triggered a referendum as soon as this fall.
Washington voters rejected the most recent ballot initiative to levy a fee on greenhouse gas emissions by a six-point margin.
“We think it should go to a vote of the people, who haven’t been loving carbon bills lately,” DeBolt said.
Roden credits the legislature with providing more flexibility for hydroelectricity than Initiative 937, a measure which voters approved in 2006 that requires larger utilities to generate at least 15 percent of their electricity using new renewable resources, excluding hydroelectricity, by 2020.
The bill allows utilities to use electricity produced by hydroelectric generation and meeting specific requirements such as affiliation with the Bonneville Power Administration to be used for compliance with I-937. More than 85 percent of the electricity generated in 2017 by Lewis County PUD came from hydroelectric sources such as the Cowlitz Falls Project, Packwood Lake Hydroelectric Project and the BPA.
Centralia City Light owns and operates the Yelm Hydroelectric Project, which can cover about 30 percent of the city’s electric grid, with most of the rest coming from the BPA. It got a total of 92.5 percent of its power consumption from hydroelectric sources in 2017.
“Basically, I’m going to stay on the side of resiliency, reliability and adequacy,” Norton said. “We want our system to be resilient, reliable, and adequate to meet the needs of our customers. … it’ll be interesting to see what those long-term touch points are and if they remain in the final version of the legislation.”
Roden also expects the bill to be subject to a rule-making process of at least two years once it’s signed by Inslee so that different state departments can examine the details of how to interpret and apply the policies codified in the document.
“If you begin to actually count hydro resources for your environmental compliance requirements, then when you’re doing your 10, 20, 30-year planning, it is still in the mix of available resources,” Roden said. “While the bill does offer specific flexibility to hydro, one of the shortfalls is it doesn’t necessarily contemplate all the technologies we would hope to acquire over the next decade or two. Developments such as improvements to battery storage and solar technologies that aren’t necessarily reliable right now in the greater Northwest.”
Though the landmark clean energy legislation is the center of attention for many public sector agencies across the state, there are other bills utility stakeholders have kept tabs on throughout the session.
Budget proposals in both the House and Senate include $750,000 for a study to look at the possibility of removing dams in the lower portion of the Snake River. Proponents of the study say it is necessary as part of helping fish populations recover, while opponents such as the Washington Public Utility Districts Association signed a letter asking that the funding be removed.
Roden said that aside from the implications dam removal would have on hydropower generation, there is already a federally funded environmental study of dams within the Columbia River watershed, so a state-level review would be duplicative.
He also anticipates increased efforts to pursue cap and trade legislation either as the current legislative session winds down, or during the period before the next one in early 2020. Lewis County PUD will see two of its largest power purchasing agreements expire in 2028 and will need to start the planning process for renewal or replacement of those contracts years in advance.
“That’s when I believe a bulk of the impacts will be felt locally,” Roden said. “One of the great things about the public power community is we all generally have a similar mindset of what we’re trying to achieve, and starting from that same point helps us lock arms before we lock horns. We absolutely have our focus on making sure that if the legislature is going to contemplate (cap and trade) or a low carbon fuel standard, that we make sure we’re at the table trying to create the best outcome for customers as possible.”
