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Sum of large customer plans equals power wholesaler’s IRP

Developing an integrated resource plan has a lot in common with putting together a jigsaw puzzle for the Colorado River Commission, which must balance the needs of small utility customers with full requirement end users.

The utilities, all publicly owned, receive only a portion of their power from CRC, comprising 55 percent of the commission’s sales. Each submits its own IRP directly to Western, and a copy to CRC.

Large retail customers, including six industrial accounts, consume the rest of the hydropower CRC sells. With individual customers that big, a power provider has to know what customer needs will be in order to plan for its own future supply. Each of the six companies prepares a five-year IRP that CRC combines into the single report it sends to Western.

Since the main energy issue to businesses is how much electricity is going to cost, said Hydropower Program Manager Malvin Ware, “It shifts the focus of planning from the resource mix to demand-side management,” he observed. “Load management and conservation are areas where these customers have control—and have incentive to make changes.”

Different operations produce different conservation strategies

All six companies have a history of maximizing conservation measures as a matter of economic necessity. The use of electrical capacity and energy make up a large part of the raw material needed to produce their final products. Each company dedicates a portion of its budget to maintenance and operating costs to keep its equipment functioning efficiently. All have benefited from infrared inspections, retrofitting lighting systems and replacing failed electrical motors with more efficient new units.

Beyond those general strategies, however, CRC’s industrial customers used their 2002 IRPs to outline conservation measures specific to their operations. For example, chemical manufacturer Pioneer re-coated anodes used in production processes to reduce voltage. AMPAC, another chemical manufacturer, leases a cell line from Pioneer and factors that company’s conservation savings into its own IRP.

To increase equipment efficiency at its Henderson, Nev., plant, Chemical Lime Company implemented a maintenance management program. The producer of lime and lime-based products also cut down on resources used in packaging and processing by converting from bagged to bulk products.

Basic Water Company, which supplies water to CRC’s other industrial customers, updated pumping equipment, while Titanium Metals Corporation implemented a management procedure to reduce production cycles. Kerr-McGee Chemicals improved the operation of its electrolytic cell line, reducing its power requirements per ton of product. The chemical producer has also considered proposals for co-generation projects that would produce steam for industrial plants in the area and power that could be put on the grid or used by manufacturers to reduce demand.

Drought a pocketbook issue for hydropower users
Comparing the cost of electrical resources with demand side options is an ongoing process, so the pieces of CRC’s planning puzzle are always changing. In addition to IRPs, customers submit monthly and annual load estimates. The commission compares those reports with the estimated resources available and makes recommendations for meeting each customer’s needs, focusing on least-cost options.

Nature threatens to complicate this already intricate process by raising the cost of CRC’s most reliable resource. “The recent drought brought the frailty of hydropower to light,” Ware commented. “Long-term plans will have to look at known fuel sources to replace lost hydropower.”
In the near term, load management-oriented IRPs have helped to protect customers from the affect of drought. “None of them have had to alter their plans,” said Ware. “They were already doing what they needed to do.”

Nature and legislature stimulate interest in renewables
The drought may push forward CRC’s effort to acquire or develop new renewable energy, as Southern Nevada Water Authority did when it adopted the state renewable portfolio standard. To help its only non-industrial retail customer reach the goal of 15 percent renewable energy by 2013, the commission is investigating a variety of advanced solar technology projects. Also, it recently completed a feasibility study on low-impact hydro generators.

Those projects would represent the Colorado River Commission’s first significant new renewable resources. “Due to the nature of industrial customers and small utilities and the reliability of hydropower, we haven’t pursued alternative energy,” said Ware, “but renewable resource planning is getting closer.”

And when it arrives, Colorado River Commission should have no trouble fitting load management and renewable energy together to provide a diverse customer base with affordable and reliable electric power. After all, it has had plenty of practice putting together puzzles.