The Idaho Public Utilities Commission (PUC) is seeking public comments through March 14 on Spokane, WA-based Avista Utilities’ 20-year natural gas plan for the 70,000 customers it serves in northern Idaho.

Avista’s overall gas utility operations also cover Washington and Oregon and combined serve more than 300,000 retail customers. Avista earlier in January submitted its biennial natural gas resources plan to all three of regulatory commissions in the Northwest states in which it operates. The integrated resource plan (IRP) for natural gas supply/demand concluded that the utility’s gas supplies are “sufficient” until 2011-12 in Oregon, and until 2014-15 in Washington and Idaho (see Daily GPI, Jan. 22).

Like the other states in which it operates, Idaho requires that Avista file an IRP every two years to address how it plans to meet demands of customer growth. “Part of the plan needs to say where the utility plans to get its electric or gas supply with a goal in mind of securing a least-cost resource mix,” said a PUC spokesperson.

In the draft submitted to the PUC, Avista projected that its customer base in Washington and Idaho would grow by 2.4% annually and demand on the company’s natural gas supply would grow 2% annually. The PUC noted that this is a lower growth rate than was projected two years earlier. “Growth is expected to be not as great because of lower-than-anticipated economic growth and lower use per customer,” a spokesperson said.

Without taking steps to add new supplies, Avista faces a natural gas shortfall for peak-demand times in 2014 or 2015, the PUC said. To prevent the shortages, the utility has told the PUC in its latest gas plan that it plans to “acquire new natural gas supply and reduce utility exposure to short-term price volatility in the wholesale natural gas market by using a number of tools, including financial hedging and storage.”

Avista also said it plans to reduce long-term demand through residential space and water heating efficiency programs. In Washington and Idaho alone, demand-side measures are expected to reduce demand by more than 1.425 million therms in the first year of the program, the utility said.

©Copyright 2008Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news reportmay not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in anyform, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.