Council still questioning Energize Eastside demand | USE report supports PSE forecast

Published 12:25 pm Thursday, May 7, 2015

The Bellevue City Council had more questions than answers by the end of Monday’s report from an independent consulting firm whose technical analysis supports moving forward with Puget Sound Energy’s Energize Eastside project.

Utility System Efficiencies was commissioned by the city in December — at up to $100,000 — to determine if Energize is necessary within the timeline provided by the energy company and whether PSE’s estimated load forecasts correctly identified capacity issues in the future.

According to USE’s independent technical analysis, PSE’s 2014 forecast was better at improving visibility for where its service area is growing than its 2013 forecast. The growing peak load is reported as 2.4 percent each year from 2014 to 2024.

USE consultant Peter Mackin said PSE is bound by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation to serve its load demand and regional transmission requests, such as to Canada. Even removing those requests — and cutting growth in other scenarios — still resulted in overloads and outages, he said.

“The bottom line is — under all scenarios — there was a local need,” Mackin said. “You can’t just say, ‘Let’s reduce all the regional transfers to zero.’ It just won’t work.”

While there are promising advances in battery technology, Mackin said there isn’t time for such an alternative idea to be vetted and prevent 2017-18 winter overloads. An environmental impact statement process now underway is expected to take at least a year to complete. Energize would meet load growth for up to 20 years, Mackin said.

“You have to start now,” he said. “You can’t wait a couple years and go, ‘Well, let’s see what happens with the flow batteries, let’s see what happens with the Tesla battery.’ You have to start now.”

Councilmembers provided USE with a number of questions about conservation, the 2012 load forecast compared to 2014’s and using weather normalization for the forecast. The study session ended at 8 p.m., so the council could go to regular session.

Mayor Claudia Balducci asked that questions the Coalition of Eastside Neighborhoods for Sensible Energy submitted for USE be provided to the council in writing with corresponding answers.

“I’m not asking for more work; I’m asking for an explanation of the work that’s already been done,” she said, later adding the sensitive nature of the project requires a better understanding of the need.

CENSE co-founder Don Marsh said the group is still not convinced of the need, and should be if city residents will be paying the project’s cost through rate increases over 40 years.

“We’re going to have a lot of people turning out for these EIS meetings when we’re not sure it’s necessary.”

The East Bellevue Community Council will consider and possibly vote on PSE’s application at its next meeting June 2.