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 300-mile, 500-kV 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.
Idaho Power’s Energy Plan for the Future, 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 a transmission station near Boardman, Ore., which will serve as the Northwest source of the project. The Idaho terminal will be the proposed Hemingway Station located in the vicinity of Melba and Murphy on the south side of the Snake River. An additional substation will be located northwest of Caldwell to improve performance of the long-distance transmission line.
The proposed Boardman-Hemingway project, where possible, will use corridors identified in the federal document Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement, Designation of Energy Corridors on Federal Land in the 11 Western States. Corridors will be developed or modified based on studies of the area, comments from federal agencies and land owners, topography, access, and other factors.
The siting of the two southern Idaho stations has been driven by two factors:
See Project Schedule for the proposed schedule.
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