Yahoo Finance

Will issue Request for Proposals (RFP) to ensure reliable service in the future

SPOKANE, Wash., Jan. 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Avista Utilities, an operating division of Avista Corp. (NYSE: AVA), has filed its 2025 Electric Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) with the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission and the Idaho Public Utilities Commission. Avista produces an electric IRP every two years detailing projected growth in electricity demand and the new resources needed to serve customers over the next 20 years.

The electric IRP balances resource requirements to meet Avista’s clean energy targets while maintaining a reliable and cost-effective resource mix. The plan includes adding new renewable resources including wind and solar through contract or ownership by the end of the decade and calls for continuing Avista’s long history of offering energy efficiency programs to help offset demand growth. To ensure adequate system supply, Avista will also need reliable generation resources including either new natural gas generation or energy storage by the end of the decade. The plan also recommends starting demand response programs designed to work with customers to lower their demand when the system is experiencing peak loads.

"Avista's 2025 Electric IRP demonstrates a continued commitment to a clean and affordable energy future for our customers," said Scott Kinney, Avista’s vice president of energy resources and integrated planning. "The IRP also reveals the importance of maintaining and modernizing current infrastructure and the need to acquire new resources to meet customer growth. To address this need, Avista will issue an All-Source Request for Proposals (RFP) in May that we expect will identify both capacity and renewable resources to ensure reliable service in the future.”

Some highlights of the 2025 IRP include:

• Due to customer growth, Avista will need to acquire additional electricity generation in the near future from renewable resources.

• Customer energy demand is expected to grow 0.9% per year and winter peak demand by 1.14% per year.

• Energy Efficiency reduces future demand growth by 32% over 20 years.

• Demand Response programs reduce peak demand by up to 4%.

• Identifies the proposed North Plains Connector transmission line as a preferred resource alternative along with other transmission upgrades in the inland northwest.

• Avista is projected to meet Washington’s Clean Energy Transformation Act (CETA) requirements to be greenhouse gas neutral with Washington’s electric supply by 2030.

• Meeting CETA’s 2045 targets will require significant energy transformation including maintaining our existing hydro system and acquiring new resources using hydrogen-based fuels, wind, solar, nuclear, and long and short term energy storage.