Idaho Falls Utility Board Meetings

October 11, 2023 The Idaho Falls Power Board of the City of Idaho Falls met Wednesday, October 11, 2023, at the Idaho Falls Power Boardroom, 140 S. Capital, Idaho Falls, Idaho at 7:45 a.m. Call to Order, Roll Call, and Announcements: There were present: Mayor Rebecca L Noah Casper Board Member Michelle Ziel-Dingman Board Member Jim Francis Board Member Jim Freeman Board Member John Radford Board Member Lisa Burtenshaw Absent: Board Member Tom Hally Also present: Bear Prairie, Idaho Falls Power (IFP) General Manager Stephen Boorman, IFP Assistant General Manager (AGM) Randy Fife, City of Idaho Falls Attorney Josh Roos, IFP Chief Financial Officer Catherine Smith, Community Development Administrator Linda Lundquist, IFP Board Secretary Mayor Casper called the meeting to order at 7:47 a.m. Calendar, Announcements, Events and Updates Board Member Francis announced the upcoming National Cleanup Workshop/Clean Energy Day and pointed out that Idaho is one of five cleanup sites and explained how these sites are being considered for windfarms since the land may have less value. Mayor Casper said the Idaho Advanced Energy Coalition (IAEC) has received a few grants and explained that with funding in place, the areas of focus will be supply chains, workforce, and state and local impact and added that she and Board Member Burtenshaw are serving on IAEC’s Local Impact subcommittee. General Manager (GM) Prairie mentioned that the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) will have staff in town to perform energy audits and reminded the Board that he’s increased the energy efficiency (EE) budget (which is IFP customer’s money that is returned through BPA for EE programs) for the coming year, offering higher rebates for ductless heat pumps and a new program aimed at low-income customers. He explained that marketing efforts are ramping up and pointed out that the customer service staff is bi- lingual and said that Ms. Swatts has been on Spanish radio explaining the programs. GM Prairie announced that 95% of Idaho Falls residents should have access to fiber by the end of the year. He suggested the utility/Board hold a celebration/community rollout that could include an open house at the Event Center followed by a shortened Board meeting in February. The concept seemed well received by the Board. GM Prairie explained IFP’s memo items for Council’s consideration and pointed out that most of the recent construction has been large-scale apartment complexes that are putting in all electric, which is helping grow IFP’s load and raising the peak energy numbers. He displayed the final wayfinding signs and explained the Liiingo codes and said that staff is working on an accompanying, self-guided walking tour. GM Prairie said that Provider of Choice contract comments are due to BPA by the end of the week and explained that IFP is not getting credit for bulb turbines and is being penalized with the added resource we brought back in 2016 to serve IFP’s load instead of continuing to sell it to BPA. He mentioned a scheduled call next week  October 11, 2023 Unapproved with Administrator Hairston. GM Prairie announced that the American Public Power Association (APPA) will soon have an open board position that he plans to pursue. Power Portfolio / Power Supply & New Resource Options GM Prairie said that the white paper is meant to provide some answers to complicated topics and cautioned that it is derived from his perspective and suggested that the Board consider the time and money (comes from IFP customers) it takes to complete massive resource projects and to also think about the global economic reality. He said a prolonged cold snap can put the Northwest grid at risk and explained that the federal system could only withstand about a 2–3-day drawdown and after that, would go to the market. GM Prairie said the BPA system can no longer meet the net requirement because the loads have grown so much in the last 15 years from when the contracts were negotiated. GM Prairie explained that PacifiCorp (PAC), as a balancing authority doesn’t formally see Idaho Falls Power, but instead looks at Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems’ (UAMPS) total load because we take transmission service under the UAMPS transmission service agreement as a UAMPS member, which UAMPS members in total are running 300- 400 megawatts (MW) short in the summer peaks and then goes out to the market. Mayor Casper asked if IFP was a member of the Western Power Pool (WPP) resource adequacy program (WRAP) and GM Prairie said it’s not the place of a non-balancing authority operating utility to join typically but the job of larger utilities or for smaller utilities to have their joint action agency they belong to join like UAMPS. He noted that UAMPS decided not to join WRAP, but that WRAP will run the models for about a year and see what the numbers say. He explained the WRAP will take surplus from other members that have resource surplus and charge a fee to those that need it because they are insufficient at meeting their WRAP requirements for the period. Board Member Francis asked if the utility could set their own parameters that also include UAMPS, and market pricing and GM Prairie said that utilities cannot set their own requirements because that is whole purpose of the WRAP to have independent resource adequacy assessments. Mayor Casper said it seemed like a slippery slope if we have a policy to run the plant only when needed, but run more often and GM Prairie said we are in an interconnected grid and at the point that supply and demand pushes prices to where peaking resources like this are in the money, that he would struggle withholding energy from the market and pointed out that if another state that has carbon taxes needs the resource that they would pay their own carbon tax on the import. Attorney Fife mentioned the City’s resolution declaring carbon free power and GM Prairie clarified that the City passed the policy in 2019 with an economical component that we’ll pursue clean resources if it is economically viable. He explained that the resolution was created because the City has finite money and resources. Assistant General Manger (AGM) Boorman pointed out that California is building a lot of gas peaking resources recently, but they have not been very publicized. Mayor Casper talked about the tension between the need for resources and desire to be low carbon emitting and said we must be practical and is willing to emit carbon if that is what’s required to meet our needs. GM Prairie said he constantly invests and tries to balance reliability and affordability and cautioned the Board to never take for granted our low power rates because there are Utah utilities that had to sell their assets because their rates were well over the cost of Rocky Mountain Power (RMP). There was a discussion about various resources mentioned in the white paper and Board Member Burtenshaw pointed out that because the utility was paying attention to the water call and heat dome the last year, that instead of losing $5 million, the utility gained it. Board Member Radford said that big battery systems in California have been exploding and catching on fire and mentioned the backend issue with batteries is how to retire them and/or what to do with them. GM Prairie explained that wind, solar and battery storage requires lots of transmission line and is a higher net-life cycle carbon output than a natural gas peaking plant. Board Member Burtenshaw said she was for a peaking plant, so long as it wasn’t named “Yellowstone” and Mayor Casper said the Board could spend some time considering a name. Board Member Francis said what he liked about the white paper was that it made it clear the utility needs to diversify. GM Prairie reviewed the pricing graphs and said he’d noticed at his recent visit to Southwest Power Pool (SPP) in Arkansas, that there were a lot of requests for new resources and applications for natural gas peaking plants in the Midwest. GM Prairie recapped that the Board greenlighted the exploration of a peaking plant and said that a request  October 11, 2023 Unapproved for proposal was put out and explained that he would work with staff on an analysis of the proposals and bring back to the December Board meeting for a vote to proceed. Peaking Plant RFP Results Review GM Prairie said that three bids were received, with two of the bids 30-40% higher than expected and one bid higher than the desired and hoped for range. He said staff will run through the numbers, while considering alternatives and bring back the economics in the November Board meeting. IFP Strategic Planning The Board continued to discuss and refine the IFP Strategic Plan. Utility Reports Property Trade – Mr. Fife provided an update on the Mulberry property trade and mentioned that the siphon is subject to agreement by the Federal Regulatory Commission (FERC). There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 11:56 a.m. s/ Linda Lundquist s/ Rebecca L. Noah Casper Linda Lundquist, BOARD SECRETARY Rebecca L. Noah Casper, MAYOR