The Idaho Public Utilities Commission (PUC) will accept comments through June 25 on Spokane, WA-based Avista Utilities’ long-range plan for meeting the needs of its 60,000 gas customers in northern Idaho through a portfolio of short- and long-term contracts, with firm and interruptible transportation for the supplies.

While current transportation deals are sufficient to meet the needs of its gas customers in Washington and northern Idaho, Avista has said it will need to acquire more transportation capacity by the 2007-08 heating season, according to a PUC spokesperson.

“The company’s goal is to contract for a reasonable amount of transportation,” the PUC spokesperson said. “Contracting for too much firm transportation could keep the company from its goal of providing low-cost energy, and failing to contract for enough impairs the company’s goal of being a reliable energy provider.”

Avista’s plan, the PUC said, includes options of transportation and supplies from seven interstate pipelines and three storage services in its region that include eastern Washington and southern Oregon, in addition to northern Idaho.

During the initial wholesale energy price spikes in 2000, Avista established “lock-in hedges and volumes from price stability,” the PUC spokesperson said. “Avista established a baseline that about half of its annual monthly natural gas loads would be hedged with fixed-price natural gas before Nov. 15, the beginning of its annual winter heating season.”

A copy of Avista’s full Integrated Resource Plan, which includes energy efficiency programs funded by a 0.5% tariff surcharge on retail bills, is available on the PUC web site: www.puc.state.id.us under the gas icon (“Gas Cases”).

©Copyright 2004 Intelligence Press Inc. Allrights reserved. The preceding news report may not be republishedor redistributed, in whole or in part, in any form, without priorwritten consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.