Idaho Energy-Efficiency Programs

The Idaho Public Utilities Commission has declared prudent some $40 million that an electric utility, Idaho Power Company, expended on energy-efficiency (EE) programs.

In reaching that conclusion, the commission noted that the programs had been subjected to multiple tests to gauge their cost-effectiveness. Those cost-effectiveness screens are intended to assure that the savings resulting from a program are greater than the measure’s costs. The commission commented that if the costs of a particular EE initiative are found to exceed the customer benefits therefrom, the utility does not necessarily have to cease offering that program.

However, it can no longer recover associated costs from ratepayers, the commission said. Instead, such costs must be absorbed by the company and its shareholders alone. The commission relayed that Idaho Power has a portfolio of 22 efficiency programs that it offers its customers, plus several educational initiatives and three demand response programs.

According to the commission, the utility’s demand response programs provided the company 392 megawatts of loadshedding capacity in 2016, while its EE projects saved a total of 170,792 megawatt-hours that same year — enough to power 14,000 “average” homes for an entire year. (Case No. IPC-E-17-03, Order No. 33908)