PacifiCorp submits updated 20-year plan weighing federal, state energy policy changes

PacifiCorp recently submitted an update of its 2023 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) to regulators, laying out revised processes to acquire electric generation and transmission resources over the course of the next 20 years.

The update stemmed from two things: PacifiCorp’s own biennial resource planning process and a series of changes to federal and state energy policies. The latter included the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s approval of Wyoming’s Ozone Transport Rule plan and a U.S. district court stay of the EPA’s disapproval of Utah’s Ozone Transport Rule plan. As a result, PacifiCorp factored in extensions to the assumed operational life of various thermal generating resources and adjustments to its acquisition plans for energy storage.

The updated plan also factored in customer demand forecasts and general resource pricing updates.

“Our IRP update delivers customers significant near-term cost savings by avoiding accelerated closures and deferring portions of our previous resource acquisition plans while our longstanding commitment to ensuring reliable service to our customers will require continued investments in several areas,” Rick Link, PacifiCorp’s senior vice president of resource planning, said.

Those investments will focus on: transmission infrastructure for new wind and solar resources, the conversion of two coal units to natural gas units, growth of both demand response and energy efficiency programs, the addition of carbon capture technology on specific coal resources, an advanced nuclear resource and energy storage resources.

If all goes as planned, the company intends to add 9,818 MW of wind resources, 4,016 MW of storage resources and 3,763 MW of solar resources, among others, while saving thousands of megawatts of capacity through both energy efficiency programs and demand response programs. Construction of several new transmission projects should also get underway to serve growing loads in the West, backed by a modernized transmission network.

“Over the long term, we also anticipate the addition of natural gas peaking resources that are capable of converting to non-carbon-emitting fuels,” Link said. “The revised preferred portfolio also includes resources necessary for individual state policy compliance and assumes the allocation of those resources is attributed to the state whose policy necessitated the addition.”

The update was given to utility commissions on an informational basis, and came after work began this January on the public input process side of the 2025 IRP.