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Taking a Look at Energy in Idaho

Posted on: Tuesday, 7 February 2006, 12:00 CST

By The Times-News, Twin Falls, Idaho,

Feb. 7--BOISE -- From Cotterel Mountain to the city of Burley to the flats outside Jerome, energy executives have their eye on Magic Valley for electric facilities.

Be it wind farms, natural gas or coal-fired power plants proposed in Idaho, each source comes with positives and negatives, supporters and its critics.

How much electricity do Idahoans use and where does it come from?

Sometimes it's tough to get a grasp of how to measure power because of the terms used to define it.

The average 40-watt light bulb left on for 25 hours uses 1 kilowatt hour of electricity. Leave three of those light bulbs on for a year and 1 megawatt hour -- or 1,000 kilowatt hours -- of electricity has been consumed.

In 2004, each Idaho resident used 1,036 kilowatt hours of power for which they paid roughly $63.23 each month. Although the national average for residential monthly consumption was slightly lower at 908 kilowatt hours, the national monthly electric bill averaged $81.42, according to the U.S. Census.

The state ranked 40th in overall energy consumption, but 19th in consumption per person, according to a 2001 report by the Energy Information Administration. As for cost, Idahoans' monthly power bill ranked 41st in the nation.

Why do Idahoans enjoy low power prices compared with the national average?

Idahoans rely heavily on two lower-cost forms of energy for their electricity: hydropower and coal.

Although much of the electricity that Idahoans consume comes from hydropower plants located on Idaho's rivers, a good deal of the power used within the state is generated elsewhere.

Idaho generates more than 54 percent of the electricity it consumes, meaning that roughly 46 percent of the electricity we use comes from out of state, according to the Idaho Division of Energy.

This is true when it comes to the 7.2 million megawatt hours of power that Idaho Power Co. imported from coal-fired power plants in other states in 2004. Idaho Power owns one-third of the Jim Bridger coal-fired plant in Wyoming, 10 percent of the Boardman plant in Oregon and half of the North Valmy facility.

Recently, the state of California toughened its regulations on energy sources -- even sources the state imports.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Times-News, Twin Falls, Idaho,

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

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Source: The Times-News

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