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Conservation used to be the coolest thing in energy planning. But now all most people want to talk about is the next great renewable energy source -- wind farms, solar arrays, small-scale nuclear plants, even wave energy. 
And while all those sources of energy are promising, the Northwest Power Planning Council's new 20-year power plan is right to go back to the future: It proposes doubling down on the Northwest's long history of conservation to meet 85 percent of the region's new demand for electricity.
It's a smart and bold plan, even if it disappoints the clean-energy activists who have pressured the council to declare the Northwest a coal-free zone. In fact, it's not the council's job to shut down coal plants, or even to demand that lawmakers and regulators close them to reduce global warming emissions.
Those of us who worry about climate change, energy supplies and the future of the Northwest economy ought to be heartened by a plan that calls for utilities to use energy efficiency and renewable energy to meet virtually all of the region's new electricity needs.
The council's draft plan is now out for public review, and you can read it at www.nwcouncil.org. The agency is accepting written comments on the plan through Nov. 6. The key strategy in the document is the highly ambitious conservation goal, which would require the region to find ways to conserve some 5,800 average megawatts over the next 20 years. To put that in perspective, that's about equal to the yearly electricity consumption of the entire state of Oregon.
Is that kind of massive conservation effort really achievable, especially given that the Northwest has been a national leader in conservation and efficiency over the past 20 years? In a recent interview, Oregon council members Melinda Eden and Joan Dukes said they were confident that there is enormous potential for energy savings in heating, lighting and more efficient operations across residential, commercial and industrial sectors.
It won't be easy. To meet the goal, utilities will have to double or triple spending on conservation, but even that is less expensive than the high cost of siting and building new power plants.
The council's 20-year plan does call for renewables, mostly wind projects, to provide about 15 percent of the new electricity demand. The council also concedes that a couple natural-gas fired plants may be needed in the Northwest, in part to provide a reliable and consistent source of power to help integrate the sometimes uneven production of wind projects.
The council's plan is based on the best estimates and forecasts of power demands and supply, but these are guesstimates in every sense, contingent on a myriad of unknowns. Strong new carbon controls will challenge and change Northwest energy production, especially coal, which provides about a quarter of the region's electricity. New energy portfolio standards nationally and in California also will alter the energy landscape in the Northwest in ways that can not be predicted.
But under any scenario, the council is absolutely right that no electric resource is as affordable, as environmentally benign and, in fact, as reliable, as conservation. New insulation, light bulbs and more efficient appliances are not as sexy as the latest in renewable energy technology, but for now they are clearly the best way to address new energy needs in the Pacific Northwest.
Wind Farm
