Washington utility attains renewable energy requirements

The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) has determined investor-owned electric utility Pacific Power has met this year’s state renewable energy requirements.

The three-member UTC is responsible for regulating private, investor-owned electric and natural gas utilities in Washington while also ensuring regulated companies provide safe and reliable service to customers at reasonable rates – allowing them the opportunity to earn a fair profit.

The compliance notification stems from the 2006 voter-approved Energy Independence Act (EIA), which requires qualifying electric utilities to obtain a certain percentage of their electricity from eligible renewable resources, including wind, solar and hydropower.

Pacific Power filed a report detailing the company’s renewable portfolio, outlining how it would supply at least 9 percent of its electric load through renewable sources for 2019.

The commission noted Pacific Power complied with the state renewable resource standard, acquiring its commission-approved target of 367,669 megawatt-hours of renewable power and a compliance review of the state’s other investor-owned electric utilities, Puget Sound Energy and Avista, at the Aug. 8 open meeting found the two companies had also met their goals.

Pacific Power provides electric service to roughly 130,000 customers in six Eastern Washington counties: Kittitas, Columbia, Garfield, Benton, Walla Walla, and Yakima.