The Northwest Power and Conservation Council proposes adding 11 GW of new generation and 5 GW of storage to its portfolio by 2032 at a fixed cost of $2.3 billion.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council (NWPCC) has unanimously approved the draft Ninth Power Plan for public comment, proposing a diversified resource portfolio to meet rising electricity demand across Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana. According to the council, the proposed portfolio carries a fixed cost of $2.3 billion in 2032, representing approximately 0.15% of the four-state region’s $1.46 trillion gross domestic product in 2025.
The plan assumes no new natural gas plants in Oregon and limits new gas development in Washington due to state regulations. While modeling indicates that roughly 2,100 megawatts of new gas capacity would be built in Idaho and Montana, the final recommendation avoids assigning state-specific targets, leaving siting decisions to individual utilities.
Designed to identify the lowest-cost resource mix capable of meeting future needs across a wide spectrum of scenarios, the plan accounts for significant uncertainty. “If the loads came in only on the low end, it would be a bit overbuilt. If it came in only on the high end, it wouldn’t be fully adequate. But when you look at that range and uncertainty, it is adequate across that risk,” said Jennifer Light, the council’s power division director, during a media briefing. To validate the strategy, the NWPCC stress-tested its planning process against variability in load growth, extreme weather events, resource and transmission availability, and operations within the Columbia Basin hydrosystem.
The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), the federal agency responsible for marketing power from the Columbia River dam system, plays a central role in the Ninth Power Plan. Legally mandated to procure resources aligned with the council’s strategy, the BPA is expected to purchase new generating capacity rather than relying solely on energy efficiency. The council advises the agency to prioritize renewables for energy supply and to evaluate battery storage against new gas plants for capacity needs as regional demand accelerates.
Assumptions regarding future transmission infrastructure and grid capacity are grounded in studies conducted by the Western Transmission Expansion Coalition (WestTEC), an industry-led planning initiative. “This strategy does assume some of that transmission gets built,” Light noted. “That is definitely something the council will be tracking as part of its midterm assessments on this plan.”
Addressing emerging demand drivers, the draft introduces energy-efficiency standards for new data centers and mandates collaboration with operators to enable flexible electricity consumption. This includes leveraging demand response programs and optimizing the use of backup generation. Under federal mandate, the council must review its power plan at least every five years, having previously adopted its eighth iteration in February 2022.