Worried about energy use during heat waves? Idaho Power explains rising demand

Idaho Power

As Idaho’s population grows, so does energy use. And the sweltering summer months are peak demand for Idaho Power.

“We think we are seeing growth contributing to higher summer loads,” Ben Brandt, director of load serving operations at Idaho Power, told the Idaho Statesman.

The utility brings energy to Southern Idaho and parts of Eastern Oregon. Last June, the company hit its all-time high in demand at 3,751 Megawatts.

This peak reveals a steady, upward trend. In 1996, Idaho Power served approximately 351,000 customers, with a peak-hour load of 2,437 MW, according to Idaho Power’s 2021 Integrated Resource Plan.

25 years later, the population served nearly doubled to more than 600,000 customers in Idaho and Oregon.

The plan said the utility expects summer loads will continue to grow. Idaho Power anticipates adding 13,300 customers each year until 2040, with the summer peak-hour load requirement growing nearly 55 MW each year.

“It’s not just population growth. It’s also the type of growth,” Brian Johnson, electrical and computer engineering professor at the University of Idaho, told the Statesman.

A few years ago, cryptocurrency mining operations flocked to Idaho for its low electricity rates, Johnson said, and operations like this can be equivalent to the electricity use of hundreds of houses or more.

“They’re running relatively high performance computers, consistently solving mathematical problems,” Johnson said. Places with low electricity rates, like Idaho, yield higher profit margins for cryptocurrency miners.

The Idaho Public Utilities Commission regulates gas, water, electricity, and some telephone services in the state. Last month, the commission approved a new Idaho Power rate for cryptocurrency operations.

Peak demand already behind us

While the area’s energy demand may increase in the long term, Idaho Power will likely see reduced load throughout the rest of the year.

Many utilities in the Northwest have peaks in August. But Idaho’s greatest annual energy demand is in late June and early July, Brandt said.

Southern Idaho is an agricultural community, Brandt said. In addition to air-conditioning, irrigation is a significant portion of total power load.

Idaho’s famed potatoes contribute to this demand. Farmers use irrigation to control the moisture levels around growing potatoes, which gives the starch a nice oval shape, Johnson said.

But that means irrigation systems — which use electricity to pump water out of the ground — are run continually from late March to the beginning of July, Johnson said. Once potato growers and other farmers shut their irrigation pumps down, Idaho Power’s load starts to drop, Johnson added.

Flowing water essential to Idaho Power’s energy production

While irrigation demands energy, flowing water produces it. Hydropower, which converts the energy of moving water to mechanical energy, is Idaho Power’s main source of energy.

The state’s rivers, like the Snake River, are a unique resource, Johnson said.

But climate change may threaten the renewable energy source. Changes in snowfall patterns could make it challenging to generate sufficient hydropower in years to come, Johnson said.

“Some of the long-range forecasts don’t look as optimistic for what snowpack is going to look like,” he said.

And short of building new hydroelectric facilities, there’s no easy way to scale up hydropower, Johnson said. While increasing water flow can generate more electricity, there are limits on how high or low water levels can be.

To prepare for summer demand, Idaho Power performs maintenance on its systems during the spring and fall, when energy use is lower.

The utility also imports a lot of power to meet summer demand, Brandt said. They will often purchase power months, and sometimes even years, in advance to ensure enough supply.

Naturally, the increased loads stress Idaho Power’s distribution system, and the challenge is to keep up with growth, Brandt said.

“One thing we do is plan way out into the future,” Brandt said, “and we begin those processes early.”

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