Boardman-Hemingway Transmission Line

Transmission paths are key to utilities like Idaho Power for bringing electricity into and through our service area.

To meet the need for more transmission capacity, Idaho Power plans to build a transmission line from northeast Oregon to southern Idaho. Idaho Power, together with the Oregon Department of Energy, Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service, has more information available on a project Web site. View our Project Fact Sheet (PDF). The company is also discussing joint development and ownership opportunities with other utilities like PacifiCorp and Bonneville Power Administration.

Community Advisory Process

Idaho Power used its community advisory process (PDF) to help site the Boardman to Hemingway project. This process engages and includes members of the local communities from Boardman, Oregon to Murphy, Idaho. We used teams in geographic locations to:

Identify community issues and concerns
Develop a range of possible routes (while following all federal, state and local requirements)
Recommend proposed and alternate routes.

Idaho Power will continue working with community members to gain feedback, ideas and share information. This collaboration, and your active involvement throughout the environmental review process, will ultimately lead to the strongest solution.

For up-to-date information, maps and schedules for the Boardman to Hemingway Project and the Community Advisory Process, we encourage you to visit the project Web site. The Web site is updated as information, including maps and data analysis, become available.

Planning For The Future

Idaho Power’s Integrated Resource Plan, a biennially-produced 20-year resource plan for meeting our electric service obligation, identifies Pacific Northwest generation resources as one component of the preferred resource portfolio. Requirements of Idaho Power’s wholesale transmission customers are also increasing. The existing transmission system to the Pacific Northwest has been at full capacity during high-demand periods.

Several electric utilities, including Idaho Power, have proposed development of the Grasslands transmission station near Boardman, Ore., which will serve as the Northwest source of the project. The Idaho terminal will be the Hemingway Substation located in the vicinity of Melba and Murphy on the south side of the Snake River.

Corridors have been be developed or modified based on recommendations from the community advisory teams, studies of the area, comments from federal agencies and land owners, topography, access, and other factors.

Project Schedule

The proposed schedule for the Boardman-Hemingway Transmission Line Project is as follows:

Permitting/Engineering

January 2008 – December 2013

Construction

January 2013 – June 2015

Line In-Service

June 2015

Contact Information

If you have questions about the Boardman-Hemingway project, or have information you wish to be considered e-mail: B2H@idahopower.com, or call: 1-877-339-0209.