Assessing the Costs of Coal Plants in the Seventh Power Plan

We've been receiving a number of letters regarding the NW Energy Coalition's issue paper, The True Cost of Coal: Fully accounting for coal-fired electricity use in the 7th Northwest Power and Conservation Plan, which contends that there are "...two shortcomings in the Council’s resource modeling that makes these polluting coal plants look cheaper than they are as a resource to meet the region’s needs."

According to the coalition's paper, the Council's resource modeling 1) doesn't include out-of-region plants that contribute to meeting Northwest demand; and 2) only focuses on the variable costs of operating in-region coal plants and doesn't account for the cost of capital improvements to meet environmental regulations.

First, the Council doesn't model the out-of-region plants (all owned by PacifiCorp) because according to our data, they're not dispatched to meet Northwest loads and our actions have no effect on their use. If that assumption is incorrect, we'll include the cost of those plants.

Secondly, the power plan will certainly include estimates of all the costs, both capital and operating, of the required upgrades for coal plants that serve the region. The Council is reviewing the compliance data cited in the paper, and if it appears accurate, we'll update the plan's cost estimates. Our goal is to make all of the data used in developing the plan as accurate as possible, so we appreciate feedback from other interested parties.

We'll be discussing the plan's development at upcoming meetings posted on our website and shared in our newsletters.