IRP - Strategically planning for use and development of energy resources

Reducing our environmental impact while maintaining safe, reliable, and affordable service.

NW Natural is strategically planning to use and develop the resources that will allow us to keep our customers' energy needs now and into the future while fulfilling our commitment in helping the region reduce its impact on the climate and being an integral part of a thriving economy.

Integrated Resource Plan

Resource planning process

At NW Natural, we have a responsibility to meet our customers' current and future energy needs, reliably and affordably. Every few years, Integrated Resource Planning (IRP) develops a plan that best meets our customers' forecasted long-term energy requirements with the goal of minimizing the combination of costs and risks for NW Natural customers. This robust planning process evaluates many factors including but not limited to the following:

Environmental policy
Customer growth
Consumption trends
Demand-side resources such as energy efficiency and demand response
Supply-side resources such as renewable natural gas, storage options

Our IRP is developed through a process open to the public and informed by feedback and a formal review by a diverse set of interested parties, including:

The Oregon and Washington utility commission staffs
Ratepayer, environmental and industry advocates
Energy Trust of Oregon
Other utilities
Other interested participants

IRP working groups & public meetings

All meetings listed below are tentative and subject to change.

Upcoming workshop	Date/Time
Transportation Customer Energy Efficiency Presentation (.pdf) Meeting video	Aug. 28, 2023; 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.

Previous workshops	Date/Time
Meeting for the public Presentation (.pdf)	Jul. 18, 2022
Workpapers Workshop	Oct. 27, 2022; 1-4 p.m.
2022 IRP Office Hours	Nov. 10, 2022; 10-11:30 a.m.
Transportation Customer Energy Efficiency Presentation (.pdf) Meeting video	Jul. 10, 2023

2022 IRP Technical Working Groups (TWG)	Date
Supplemental TWG - Load Considerations	Sept. 29, 2021
Supplemental TWG - Emissions Considerations	Dec. 9, 2021
TWG 1 - Planning Environment and Environmental Policy Presentation - TWG 1 (.pdf) Erratum Notice (.pdf)	Jan. 14, 2022
TWG 2 - Load Forecasting Presentation - TWG 2 (.pdf) Erratum Notice (.pdf)	Feb. 11, 2022
TWG 3 - Supply Side Resources Presentation - TWG 3 (.pdf) Erratum Notice (.pdf) TWG 3 meeting video; 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. TWG 3 meeting video; 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.	Mar. 28, 2022
TWG 4 - Avoided Costs and Demand-Side Resources Presentation - TWG 4 (.pdf) TWG 4 meeting video; 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. TWG 4 meeting video; 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.	Apr. 13, 2022
TWG 5 - Distribution System Planning Presentation - TWG 5 (.pdf) Erratum Notice (.pdf) TWG 5 meeting video; 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. TWG 5 meeting video; 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.	Apr. 25, 2022
TWG 6 - RNG Evaluation Methodology and Incremental Cost Calculation; Review of System Resource Planning Model Presentation - TWG 6 (.pdf) TWG 6 meeting video; 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. TWG 6 meeting video; 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.	Jun. 1, 2022
TWG 7 - Portfolio Results & Actions Presentation - TWG 7 (.pdf) Erratum Notice (.pdf) TWG 7 meeting video; 9a.m. to 12p.m.	Sept. 8, 2022

2018 IRP Update Technical Working Groups (TWG)	Date
TWG 1 - 2018 IRP Update	Feb. 2, 2021
Supplemental TWG - Planning Standard	Jun. 3, 2021

Current and previous IRPs

2022 IRP - letter from David H. Anderson, NW Natural President and CEO

It is an exciting time for energy system planning as the energy transition is fully underway. Since we filed our last Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) transformative climate policies have been established in both Oregon and Washington. These policies require emissions reductions from gas utilities and drastically changes the calculus of comparing low emissions resources against traditional resources.

While NW Natural has long been a leader amongst gas utilities in planning for a low carbon future, our 2022 IRP is our first comprehensive analysis to support implementation of our obligations under existing climate policies. The outcome of this complex and technical work is a flexible long-term resource acquisition plan, supported by concrete near-term action designed to achieve the emissions reductions needed to support local, state, and federal climate policies at a reasonable cost, while continuing to provide safe and reliable service.

The highlights of this plan include expanding our acquisition of renewable natural gas (RNG) over the next few years and working with the Energy Trust of Oregon to expand energy efficiency (EE) programs that serve our customers within the context of complying with climate policy. To address any compliance obligations not met by RNG and EE before filing our next IRP (expected in 2024), we will acquire emissions compliance instruments made available to covered parties in the climate programs in Oregon and Washington. These compliance instruments include Community Climate Investments in Oregon’s Climate Protection Program and emissions allowances and offsets that can be used for compliance in Washington’s Cap-and-lnvest program. Longer-term, we expect the mix of biofuel-sourced renewable gas we deliver to our customers to be supplemented by renewable hydrogen and synthetic natural gas made from renewable hydrogen.

While there is still much to sort out regarding the specific resources we will need going forward as policy, technology, and markets develop, we expect the majority of the energy we deliver to our customers to be from renewable and net zero sources by the late 2030s. While climate policy has led to a substantial change to our expected resource acquisition, a critical role played by IRPs is the analysis to ensure reliability and resource adequacy. For a gas utility, this means ensuring we have sufficient resources to serve all of our customers’ needs during the coldest weather we can experience in our service territory. In this regard, the capacity resources that we need in this IRP are similar to that in our previous IRPs — maintaining our existing energy storage resources, adding storage capacity from our Mist underground storage facility in Northwest Oregon, and a reliance upon non-pipeline solutions (energy efficiency and demand response).

I am extremely proud of the work that has gone into developing our 2022 IRP and want to thank everyone who participated in the public process that helped shape this document. Your feedback and participation in this process has made our IRP better and our plan to move forward more robust. The analysis included in this IRP demonstrates how a natural gas utility can contribute to the energy transition needed to address climate change by rapidly reducing emissions while continuing to deliver safe, reliable, and affordable energy services. I encourage our energy and climate stakeholders in the Pacific Northwest to review the detailed plan we have developed.

Contact Us

Please feel free to get in touch with us with questions about the IRP, or to be added to a workshop or Technical Working Group (TWG) for our next plan.

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