Idaho doesn’t produce energy like it used to. How drought, renewables are changing our landscape.

The three dams that make up the Hells Canyon Complex provide most of Idaho Power's hydroelectricity. Completed in 1967, Hells Canyon Dam includes a fish trap that captures adult salmon and steelhead that are spawned at the company's hatcheries. (Mia Maldonado/Idaho Capital Sun)

In 2009, hydroelectricity made up 80% of the electricity generated in Idaho. Last year, that number was 49%, according to reports from the Idaho Office for Energy and Mineral Resources.

The energy sector in the West has lost about 300 million megawatt hours of power generation between 2003 and 2020 because of persistent drought. That is equivalent to $28 billion in lost revenue, the Oregon Capital Chronicle reported.

Drought is one factor contributing to the change in how much hydropower is a part of Idaho’s grid, but there are other aspects of the state’s energy landscape to consider, experts say.

Stephanie Lenhart, a professor at Boise State University and researcher with the university’s Energy Policy Institute, told the Idaho Capital Sun that 2009 was a particularly strong year for hydroelectric generation. Each year hydroelectricity production has a natural variability, but as climate change advances, reduced snowpack has led to more drought in the Pacific Northwest, she said.

Additionally, the share of hydropower in Idaho’s grid has decreased because of a growing energy demand and the addition of other energy resources, Lenhart said. Idaho’s energy demand is driven by a rising population, bitcoin mining, and the development of more data centers and computer-intensive workplaces, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported .

In other words, hydropower is a smaller piece of the pie than it was over a decade ago, Lenhart said.

“We aren’t adding hydroelectric resources in the same way other resources are growing,” she told the Sun. “Natural gas, wind and solar have become competitive, and they are more cost competitive than coal resources.”

Idaho is not producing energy the same way it was a decade ago. Drought, renewable energy goals and shifting resource costs have transformed how Idaho and its utilities generate energy.

How do Idaho utilities get their energy?

Idaho is served by three investor-owned electric utilities – Idaho Power, Avista Utilities and Rocky Mountain Power. Other energy utilities include municipal utilities and rural electric cooperatives.

While 40% of the state’s electricity is generated from resources in Idaho, about 40% more comes from out-of-state generation, according to Idaho’s Office of Energy and Mineral Resources’ Energy Landscape 2024 Report. All three utilities use in-state and out-of-state resources to generate electricity.

Idaho Power, the state’s largest electricity provider

Idaho Power is based in Boise, and it is Idaho’s largest electricity provider. The company provides electricity to 640,000 customers in Idaho and eastern Oregon.

The company continues to generate most of its energy from the Hells Canyon Complex, which is the largest privately-owned hydroelectric facility in the country. The complex consists of Hells Canyon, Oxbow and Brownlee dams.

Idaho Power also has a goal to generate 100% clean energy by 2045. According to the company’s website , it is moving away from coal, working toward transmission lines and investing in solar to reach that goal.

While there are no coal plants in Idaho, the company is a joint owner of two operating coal plants in Nevada and Wyoming. Two of the four units in Wyoming were converted to natural gas plants in early 2024. And in 2020, Idaho Power ceased its operations from a coal plant in Boardman, Oregon, in 2020.

Jared Hansen, resource planning leader at Idaho Power, told the Sun that using natural gas is cost effective, and it cuts emissions in half compared to using coal.

“Coal used to be seen as a very inexpensive and very prudent generation resource, and it isn’t seen that way as much anymore,” he said. “It carries a lot of economic risk and environmental risk with it. I think natural gas will stay a significant part of the energy portfolio for a while because it meets those needs when the other resources cannot.”

Idaho Power is also working to create the Boardman to Hemingway transmission line that will run 290 miles across eastern Oregon and southwestern Idaho. The transmission line would let Idaho Power import renewable energy from other parts of the Pacific Northwest when needed, Hansen said. The company is aiming to finish the line in 2026.

“It gives us access to a lot of hydroelectric generation that we don’t have on our system, and as well as a lot of wind and solar resources,” he said. “Transmission lines will make it possible for us to meet more of our demand with clean and renewable energy resources through energy purchases.”

As for an increase in renewable energy, Hansen said wind and solar energy are the lowest cost resources to provide energy, which has led to an increase in their development.

“It’s not just that utilities are trying to be clean or conscious of the environment,” he said. “It’s also that it is the single lowest cost way to produce energy on your system.”

Avista increases natural gas operations

Avista is headquartered in Spokane, Washington. The company serves more than 145,000 electric and 95,000 natural gas customers in Idaho’s northern and central regions.

In Idaho, its hydroelectric resources are based in Post Falls and Clark Fork. Its out of state hydroelectric resources are based in Montana and eastern Washington.

“Reduced levels of snowpack and precipitation throughout the region do have an impact on Avista’s hydro-electric production from year to year, however Avista does have a diverse portfolio of hydro resources and contractual rights within the region that allow production from many watersheds,” Avista’s communications manager Jared Webley told the Sun.

The company’s natural gas generation is higher than its hydroelectric generation, and its natural gas generation has increased in comparison to 2010. The company’s natural gas operations are in Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

Avista is taking steps to comply with Washington’s Senate Bill 5116 , or Clean Energy Transformation Act . The state law requires utilities in Washington to use a carbon neutral supply of electricity by 2030, source 100% of their electricity from renewable or non-carbon emitting sources by 2045, and eliminate coal-fired resources from their portfolio by the end of 2025.

The company has an ownership share of a coal plant in Montana, but it will cease its operations there by 2025 to comply with the law, according to its 2023 Electric Integrated Resource Plan report .

Rocky Mountain Power relies on coal, natural gas to bring power to customers

Unlike Idaho Power and Avista, Rocky Mountain Power, which provides electricity to 87,000 residents in southeast Idaho, relies primarily on coal and natural gas to provide electricity. Hydroelectricity only makes up 4.7% of its energy mix.

Rocky Mountain Power is one of two subsidiaries of the company PacifiCorp, which serves customers in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states including Idaho, Wyoming and Utah. The electricity it brings to Idaho customers is mostly coming from coal and natural gas plants in Utah and Wyoming, company spokesperson Jona Whitesides told the Sun.

“We haven’t expanded those, but they’re still definitely in use,” he said. “Whether you’re for coal, whether you’re against it or indifferent — those fossil fuel plants are still pretty essential, until we can get some type of advanced nuclear in the area.”

Whitesides said the company has expanded its wind and solar energy mix by adding more wind projects in Wyoming and securing power purchase agreements with companies for solar energy within the last decade.

But those renewables have limitations, he said.

“There has not been a solution in the utility industry to be able to store that excess energy on a large scale,” he said. “If you don’t have any wind, if you don’t have any sun, or if we’re in the middle of summer and now the spring runoff is gone, that’s where the fossil fuels come in to ensure that you have reliability and stability on the system.”

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