Puget Sound Energy Unveils 2013 Draft Integrated Resource Plan

Energy efficiency, ‘peaking’ resources and renewables remain draft plan’s focus

BELLEVUE, Wash.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– The best strategy for meeting Puget Sound Energy customers’ long-range electricity demand is for the utility to continue promoting energy efficiency, acquiring additional power supply for periods of peak customer usage, and securing enough renewable-power resources, over time, to stay in compliance with state law, according to the utility’s draft 2013 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP).

Updated every two years, the draft plan released today forecasts PSE customers’ energy requirements 20 years into the future and suggests the resource options most likely to meet customer energy needs at the lowest cost and risk.

The draft IRP notes that development of vast North American shale-bed deposits of natural gas has steeply driven down the commodity’s market price, which in turn has softened electricity prices. The draft plan adds, however, that “… it is not realistic to expect natural gas prices to remain this low over the long term. The very affordability of this fuel means that usage is also increasing, especially in the transportation and utility [power-generation] sectors, and this will create upward pressure on prices over time.”

The market price for natural gas, which topped $13 per dekatherm (MMBtu) in 2008, is currently trading in the $3.50 to $4 range. The draft IRP sees today’s wholesale gas prices rising to the $6 to $7 range by 2020. Meanwhile, the cumulative, 20-year cost of securing PSE customers’ electric supply is projected to be $13.8 billion. While that figure is slightly above the 2011 IRP‘s forecast, it is far below the 20-year, $20 billion PSE power cost predicted four years ago.

“The surge in domestic production of natural gas over the past few years has been a game-changer that’s benefiting our customers and our economy,” said Booga Gilbertson, PSE vice president of Operations. “What hasn’t changed, though, is PSE‘s fundamental game plan for giving our customers safe, dependable, efficient energy service.”

The draft IRP predicts that, 20 years from now, PSE will need about 40 percent more natural gas supply – about 380,000 dekatherms more per day – to serve its customers’ peak, wintertime demand for gas. Current peak-day demand is approximately 930,000 dekatherms.

An additional 156,000 dekatherms per day …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance