Idaho Power seeks PUC certificate for Boardman to Hemingway line

Published 3:00 pm Saturday, January 14, 2023

BOISE, Idaho — Idaho Power Company has applied to the Idaho Public Utilities Commission for a certificate of public convenience and necessity associated with the proposed Boardman to Hemingway transmission line.

The Monday, Jan. 9, application means the Boise-based utility is asking the commission to formally recognize that the project serves the public interest.

The proposed 290-mile, 500-kilovolt line would connect a future substation near Boardman to Idaho Power’s existing Hemingway Substation in Owyhee County, Idaho. The company hopes to break ground in the second half of this year and bring the project online as early as 2026.

Population and business growth in the Northwest and Intermountain regions and extreme weather have driven peak energy demand to the limits of existing transmission capacity, according to an Idaho Power release. The line would increase power availability and add flexibility to meet peak demand — in summer in Southwestern Idaho and winter in the Northwest.

The line is the lowest-cost, lowest-risk way to meet customers’ growing needs, said Ryan Adelman, the company’s vice president of power supply. And it will provide another path to move energy and “increase access to clean generation resources like hydro in the Pacific Northwest, wind in Wyoming and even solar in the Southwest.”

The project needs approval from both Idaho’s and Oregon’s utility commissions, counties and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers where the line would cross wetlands. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service issued records of decision approving the right of way on federal land.

The Oregon Energy Facility Siting Council in late September 2022 approved a site certificate, which the Stop B2H Coalition is appealing to the Oregon Supreme Court.

The coalition is raising six issues — procedural and substantive — to the court, said Jim Kreider, coalition co-chair. One is a blanket variance and exception to noise control standards. Another involves scenic values in protected and recreation areas — for example, the line would come within 125 feet of a National Oregon Trail Interpretive Center view area.

The Oregon PUC recently held two meetings, which opened a contested-case process, on an Idaho Power application for a certificate of public convenience and necessity.

The certificate addresses condemnation or eminent domain, among other things. In Union County, Idaho Power would use a route that differs from the BLM’s environmentally preferred route, Kreider said. Oregon PUC rules say all alternatives must be considered before a condemnation order is issued.

Upgrading and fire-hardening existing transmission lines would increase capacity, which should be done before building additional capacity is considered, he said. And Idaho Power could build generation closer to Idaho customers.