Preparing to commercialize.
yoming’s Public Service Commission unanimously approved a new agreement with the state’s largest utility last Tuesday to ensure the cost of generating and transmitting electricity across six states within the utility’s service territory remains equitably distributed.
The 2020 interjurisdictional agreement makes changes to a previous 2017 agreement in an effort to extend greater flexibility and autonomy to Wyoming and other states in PacifiCorp’s service territory. Under the new plan, states will have a bit more agency to determine their own energy portfolio, but still maintain the perks of an integrated electrical system.
The changes in protocol come at a time when several West Coast states have elected to transition away from coal, while others, like Wyoming, want to continue depending on the commodity. The splintering of preferences has greatly complicated PacifiCorp’s integrated electrical system.
The commission’s endorsement of the agreement Tuesday comes after several years of heated negotiations between about 35 stakeholders across the six-state territory. Given the new system’s complexity, PacifiCorp will have a four-year transition period in which to implement the changes.
Wyoming’s Public Service Commission, upon approving the new plan Tuesday, appeared pleased a resolution had been reached.
“I think the multi-state protocol does the best it can under the circumstances,” Mary Throne, deputy chair of the Public Service Commission, said at an open meeting Tuesday held by phone.
“There are several features in the agreement that protect Wyoming,” she added.
Why make changes?
The call to update the multi-state agreement came when some of the states within PacifiCorp’s service territory, like Washington and Oregon, announced plans to divest from coal and transition to more renewable energy. In response, some Wyoming lawmakers doubled downed on their support for coal-generated electricity.
Bill would allow companies that buy retired power plants to take on their customers, transmission lines
ENERGY JOURNAL
Bill would allow companies that buy retired power plants to take on their customers, transmission lines
Camille Erickson , Nick Reynolds
The swings in energy portfolio preferences put a wrinkle in the collaborative approach PacifiCorp takes to providing reliable and inexpensive electricity to 1.9 million customers across the Rocky Mountain region. Having an integrated and diverse system like PacifiCorp’s typically offers a host of benefits to ratepayers in the form of more efficiency, stability and lower rates.
In other words, some states’ preference to transition away from coal (and others’ desire to keep it) presented a particularly thorny logistical challenge for both the company and state regulators across the West. Those involved were left to consider how to fairly distribute energy costs across half a dozen states with conflicting aspirations.
But federally subsidizing Wind generated power and raising customers rates is not a cheap source of power.
