After a recent Lewis County Public Utility District (PUD) Board of Commissioners meeting, the PUD will pursue a deal with an Eastern Washington public utility that would bring supplemental energy to Lewis County in the winter and help meet renewable energy requirements.
Lewis County PUD General Manager David Plotz and Power Resources Manager Luke Canfield presented a new opportunity to purchase a six-month block of energy to PUD commissioners Mike Hadaller, Dave Fenn and Dave Muller during the meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 19.
The proposed agreement with the Franklin County PUD in Eastern Washington would allow the two customer-owned utilities to split the year-round energy output from the Wheat Field Wind Farm located near Arlington, Oregon.
If finalized, the agreement could help the PUD avoid turning to the open market to buy extra power at a higher cost in the winter during the area's highest usage months. It could also help the Lewis County PUD meet renewable energy requirements without having to purchase renewable energy credits (RECs) like it does now.
“On average, it turns us from being a purchaser in the market to being able to either take it to load or sell it back to the market,” Canfield said.
Plotz and Canfield pitched the agreement as a perfect opportunity that meets a very specific need. In fact, the two noted that the local utility looked at the year block of windfarm energy when it first was put up for sale but did not pursue buying it because the extra energy was not needed in the summer months. The six-month agreement, however, fits the utility’s energy use needs.
“We really haven't been able to find anything that was palatable to this point because we had to buy an annual strip,” Canfield said. “We definitely don't need the energy in summer. While we do need the RECs under I-937, anytime we can get them to strategically be able to add a resource and be able to only have to purchase it in the months we need is not something we have been able to find up to this point until now.”
The core of the proposed agreement with Franklin County PUD is a key difference between it and Lewis County. While the Lewis County PUD is a winter-peaking utility facing the most demand during the coldest parts of the year in January and February, Franklin County PUD is a summer-peaking utility.
“We have learned that when we put our load profiles together, they are almost the exact opposite of each other,” Canfield said. “So we've been discussing the opportunity of something like this if we saw it come up that we might want to look into splitting an annual strip, so that's what we have in front of you today.”
According to Canfield, Franklin County PUD bid on the energy and won when it was being sold by Snohomish County PUD. But since Franklin County faces a similar problem to Lewis County in only needing the extra power for half the year, it is looking to sell off the extra six months.
It is now offering six months of the energy output to the Lewis County PUD for $73.25 per megawatt hour from November to April for roughly three and a half years. If the contract goes forward as is, the agreement would last through March 31, 2029, giving Lewis County PUD four winters with the supplemental power. Plotz and Canfield also added that there is a possibility of extending the agreement beyond that if it works out well.
The power will be transmitted through the Bonneville Power Administration's transmission lines from the Wheat Field Wind Farm, which is located on the other side of the Columbia River Gorge near the town of Arlington in Gilliam County, Oregon. The facility has been operating since 2009 and has a production capacity of up to 97.5 megawatts. That is the maximum it can produce at peak wind, which does not blow all the time.
Despite the wind farm being built relatively close and selling frequently to utilities in the Pacific Northwest, the wind farm is owned by Energias De Portugal Renewables North America, a large energy company based in Portugal with its North American headquarters in Houston, Texas.
While the deal is already appealing for Lewis County on account of the energy it provides, it becomes extra appealing because it could help the utility meet state-imposed renewable energy requirements. In the state of Washington, all utilities that supply power to 25,000 or more individuals must comply with the Energy Independence Act (EIA) and the Clean Energy Transformation Act (CETA). The latter mandates that the state be 100% reliant on renewable energy by 2045 and the former sets progressive requirements for utilities in the meantime.
In 2012, the first year the EIA became effective, the policy mandated that the 18 utilities in the state subject to the rule have at least 3% of the energy they supply to customers come from renewable resources. That percentage requirement has gone up multiple times since then, most recently rising to 15% in 2020.
Since Lewis County PUD generally buys renewable energy credits to meet those minimums, meeting them naturally with energy consumption provides an opportunity for cost savings.
“This is really just to show that bringing this in not only helps us fill the energy void in the winter, but it also takes care of our legislative compliance,” Canfield said.
Between the Wheat Field Wind Farm and another wind farm project, the PUD expects the majority of the state-mandated energy requirement will be covered by its power sources in the near future.
