PacifiCorp Fails to Meet 2019 IRP Filing Deadline, Asks for Second Delay

Today, PacifiCorp announced that it will be pushing back its Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) filing date from August 1 to October 18. The plan was originally supposed to be filed April 1. The utility has been studying the economics of its coal fleet since August 2018, presenting new information at monthly public information meetings. 

Here’s a brief recap of the process:

• PacifiCorp has shielded the economics of its coal fleet for years, even going so far as to sue Washington state regulators to prevent the release of its unredacted August 2018 coal analysis to the public. 

• In December 2018, they finally caved and released their own analysis that showed 13 of their 22 coal units were uneconomic compared to alternatives; in other words, each unit is cheaper to retire and replace with other energy sources.

• Then in April 2019, the utility revealed they could retire as many as 9 coal units (which emit 10 million tons of CO2 or the equivalent emissions of 2 million cars) in 2022 and save customers $12 million. The best money saving option was to retire 4 units and save $248 million. Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon strongly criticized the company’s plan to study retiring up to 4 Wyoming coal units.

• A month later, the utility shifted gears. They presented their top-ranked energy plan which contained no new near-term coal retirements, with drastic changes in modelling assumptions and valuation of different retirement scenarios.

• At a May 30th technical conference, an Oregon Commissioner asked a company representative: “Can you help me understand where the $100 million went?” in reference to a 4-unit coal retirement case that appeared to have lost $100 million of value between the April and May analyses without explanation.

• In June, the utility indicated presented a new top-ranked plan that would only retire two coal units early, but not until 2025, though previously the company had found more cost savings with 2022 retirements. 

Now, the week of their final public IRP meeting and only 2 weeks before the plan was supposed to have been filed, they have requested an extension due to “modelling errors” around costs at the Jim Bridger plant in Wyoming. PacifiCorp’s customers should be concerned that the utility may be willing to tie its customers to higher electricity bills rather than confront Wyoming leaders over coal plant retirements.

Senior Campaign Representative Christopher Thomas said: “PacifiCorp has been studying the high cost of its coal plants for close to a year, but it’s still finding costly errors that amount to tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. We hope it will not walk back plans to save its 2 million customers money by replacing its expensive coal with clean energy like wind, solar and battery storage. This delay provides time for the utility to do the right thing for its customers’ pocketbooks and the climate crisis by recognizing economic reality and moving to more affordable, cleaner energy.”