In 2005, the Council and the Bonneville Power Administration created the Resource Adequacy Forum and tasked it to develop a consensus-based resource adequacy framework for the Pacific Northwest. The purpose of this framework is to provide a consistent and unambiguous means of assessing whether the region has sufficient deliverable resources to meet its electricity demands reliably and to establish an effective implementation approach to assure an adequate supply for future years. This effort also ties directly to current Western Electricity Coordinating Council efforts to assess west-wide resource adequacy.

On April 16, 2008, the Council adopted the forum’s proposed adequacy standard for the Northwest (Council document 2008-07). The standard is intended to be an early warning for the region should resource development fall dangerously short -- it is not intended to be a resource planning target. In aggregate, the region currently has more than sufficient resources to “keep the lights on” but existing amounts and types of resources may not be the best mix to satisfy the economic needs of the region. In addition, some utilities may not have adequate supplies of their own or have access to surplus resources in other areas. This is why utilities, Bonneville and the Council are all actively assessing what additional resources are needed to provide the best mix of generation and efficiency to satisfy both physical and economic needs.

There remain a number of technical issues that the forum’s committees will address over the coming year. Issues such as how to better account for wind and hydro resources in the assessment of adequacy will be discussed. We encourage your participation in this process. If you wish to add your name to our email lists, please email your request to Gillian Charles  (gcharles@nwcouncil.org).