The Council adopted its current power plan, the 2021 Power Plan, in February of 2022. The power division is now starting to prepare for its next power plan. Much work goes into the early preparation stage, as the power division works to develop draft inputs that will support the testing and preparation of modeling tools. To support this preparation, the Council needs to start framing the potential scope of analysis, as the datasets and models may need to be adjusted to support the specific analytical questions. It is important to engage the region during this early scoping.
The staff have prepared an issue paper that outlines this early scoping. The paper provides a high-level overview of the Northwest Power Act power planning requirements and the plan development process, as well as providing early thinking on proposed scenario modeling. The proposals represented in this issue paper are far from final. The goal of releasing the paper now is to use the public comment to refine the scope. The Council will have an opportunity to revisit and finalize the scenario scoping over the coming months.
Submit comments on this paper by April 26, 2024 to comments@nwcouncil.org.
Webinar: On April 3 2024 from 9:00am - 11:00am Pacific, staff provided an overview of the ideas captured in the issue paper, and answered questions from stakeholders. Request the recording by emailing comments@nwcouncil.org.
