Pacific Northwest Utilities Conference Committee (PNUCC) predicts a 30% increase in our region's demand for electricity over the next 10 years.
Pacific Northwest Utilities Conference Committee (PNUCC) predicts a 30% increase in our region’s demand for electricity over the next 10 years.
New capacity, both from fossil fuels and renewables, will need to be built, (along with new transmission, energy storage, and demand-side management), but there are large differences between the various generation types.
Here’s how much of each resource it would take to generate the additional 7,400 average megawatts (aMW) required to meet the need:
Firm Power Resources
Firm power is power that’s intended to be available at all times. To meet the need, it would take:
OR
OR
OR
Intermittent Resources
These resources are not continuously available due to external factors that cannot be controlled. To meet the projected 30% increase with only intermittent resources, it would take:
OR
Sources: NRECA; Grid Strategies; capacity factors from U. S. Energy Information Administration. Design: NRECA (Jerry Mosemak, Jen Wheeler, Riva Cho); FEC Staff. Revised with regionally specific numbers by FEC staff.
