Revised Code of Washington
Chapter 19.280 - Electric Utility Resource Plans.
19.280.030 - Development of a resource plan—Requirements of a resource plan—Clean energy action plan.

RCW 19.280.030
Development of a resource plan—Requirements of a resource plan—Clean energy action plan.

Each electric utility must develop a plan consistent with this section.
(1) Utilities with more than twenty-five thousand customers that are not full requirements customers must develop or update an integrated resource plan by September 1, 2008. At a minimum, progress reports reflecting changing conditions and the progress of the integrated resource plan must be produced every two years thereafter. An updated integrated resource plan must be developed at least every four years subsequent to the 2008 integrated resource plan. The integrated resource plan, at a minimum, must include:
(a) A range of forecasts, for at least the next ten years or longer, of projected customer demand which takes into account econometric data and customer usage;
(b) An assessment of commercially available conservation and efficiency resources, as informed, as applicable, by the assessment for conservation potential under RCW 19.285.040 for the planning horizon consistent with (a) of this subsection. Such assessment may include, as appropriate, opportunities for development of combined heat and power as an energy and capacity resource, demand response and load management programs, and currently employed and new policies and programs needed to obtain the conservation and efficiency resources;
(c) An assessment of commercially available, utility scale renewable and nonrenewable generating technologies including a comparison of the benefits and risks of purchasing power or building new resources;
(d) A comparative evaluation of renewable and nonrenewable generating resources, including transmission and distribution delivery costs, and conservation and efficiency resources using "lowest reasonable cost" as a criterion;
(e) An assessment of methods, commercially available technologies, or facilities for integrating renewable resources, including but not limited to battery storage and pumped storage, and addressing overgeneration events, if applicable to the utility's resource portfolio;
(f) An assessment and ten-year forecast of the availability of regional generation and transmission capacity on which the utility may rely to provide and deliver electricity to its customers;
(g) A determination of resource adequacy metrics for the resource plan consistent with the forecasts;
(h) A forecast of distributed energy resources that may be installed by the utility's customers and an assessment of their effect on the utility's load and operations;
(i) An identification of an appropriate resource adequacy requirement and measurement metric consistent with prudent utility practice in implementing RCW 19.405.030 through 19.405.050;
(j) The integration of the demand forecasts, resource evaluations, and resource adequacy requirement into a long-range assessment describing the mix of supply side generating resources and conservation and efficiency resources that will meet current and projected needs, including mitigating overgeneration events and implementing RCW 19.405.030 through 19.405.050, at the lowest reasonable cost and risk to the utility and its customers, while maintaining and protecting the safety, reliable operation, and balancing of its electric system;
(k) An assessment, informed by the cumulative impact analysis conducted under RCW 19.405.140, of: Energy and nonenergy benefits and reductions of burdens to vulnerable populations and highly impacted communities; long-term and short-term public health and environmental benefits, costs, and risks; and energy security and risk;
(l) A ten-year clean energy action plan for implementing RCW 19.405.030 through 19.405.050 at the lowest reasonable cost, and at an acceptable resource adequacy standard, that identifies the specific actions to be taken by the utility consistent with the long-range integrated resource plan; and
(m) An analysis of how the plan accounts for:
(i) Modeled load forecast scenarios that consider the anticipated levels of zero emissions vehicle use in a utility's service area, including anticipated levels of zero emissions vehicle use in the utility's service area provided in RCW 47.01.520, if feasible;
(ii) Analysis, research, findings, recommendations, actions, and any other relevant information found in the electrification of transportation plans submitted under RCW 35.92.450, 54.16.430, and 80.28.365; and
(iii) Assumed use case forecasts and the associated energy impacts. Electric utilities may, but are not required to, use the forecasts generated by the mapping and forecasting tool created in RCW 47.01.520. This subsection (1)(m)(iii) applies only to plans due to be filed after September 1, 2023.
(2) For an investor-owned utility, the clean energy action plan must: (a) Identify and be informed by the utility's ten-year cost-effective conservation potential assessment as determined under RCW 19.285.040, if applicable; (b) establish a resource adequacy requirement; (c) identify the potential cost-effective demand response and load management programs that may be acquired; (d) identify renewable resources, nonemitting electric generation, and distributed energy resources that may be acquired and evaluate how each identified resource may be expected to contribute to meeting the utility's resource adequacy requirement; (e) identify any need to develop new, or expand or upgrade existing, bulk transmission and distribution facilities; and (f) identify the nature and possible extent to which the utility may need to rely on alternative compliance options under RCW 19.405.040(1)(b), if appropriate.
(3)(a) An electric utility shall consider the social cost of greenhouse gas emissions, as determined by the commission for investor-owned utilities pursuant to RCW 80.28.405 and the department for consumer-owned utilities, when developing integrated resource plans and clean energy action plans. An electric utility must incorporate the social cost of greenhouse gas emissions as a cost adder when:
(i) Evaluating and selecting conservation policies, programs, and targets;
(ii) Developing integrated resource plans and clean energy action plans; and
(iii) Evaluating and selecting intermediate term and long-term resource options.
(b) For the purposes of this subsection (3): (i) Gas consisting largely of methane and other hydrocarbons derived from the decomposition of organic material in landfills, wastewater treatment facilities, and anaerobic digesters must be considered a nonemitting resource; and (ii) qualified biomass energy must be considered a nonemitting resource.
(4) To facilitate broad, equitable, and efficient implementation of chapter 288, Laws of 2019, a consumer-owned energy utility may enter into an agreement with a joint operating agency organized under chapter 43.52 RCW or other nonprofit organization to develop and implement a joint clean energy action plan in collaboration with other utilities.
(5) All other utilities may elect to develop a full integrated resource plan as set forth in subsection (1) of this section or, at a minimum, shall develop a resource plan that:
(a) Estimates loads for the next five and ten years;
(b) Enumerates the resources that will be maintained and/or acquired to serve those loads;
(c) Explains why the resources in (b) of this subsection were chosen and, if the resources chosen are not: (i) Renewable resources; (ii) methods, commercially available technologies, or facilities for integrating renewable resources, including addressing any overgeneration event; or (iii) conservation and efficiency resources, why such a decision was made;
(d) By December 31, 2020, and in every resource plan thereafter, identifies how the utility plans over a ten-year period to implement RCW 19.405.040 and 19.405.050; and
(e) Accounts for:
(i) Modeled load forecast scenarios that consider the anticipated levels of zero emissions vehicle use in a utility's service area, including anticipated levels of zero emissions vehicle use in the utility's service area provided in RCW 47.01.520, if feasible;
(ii) Analysis, research, findings, recommendations, actions, and any other relevant information found in the electrification of transportation plans submitted under RCW 35.92.450, 54.16.430, and 80.28.365; and
(iii) Assumed use case forecasts and the associated energy impacts. Electric utilities may, but are not required to, use the forecasts generated by the mapping and forecasting tool created in RCW 47.01.520. This subsection (5)(e)(iii) applies only to plans due to be filed after September 1, 2023.
(6) Assessments for demand-side resources included in an integrated resource plan may include combined heat and power systems as one of the measures in a conservation supply curve. The value of recoverable waste heat resulting from combined heat and power must be reflected in analyses of cost-effectiveness under this subsection.
(7) An electric utility that is required to develop a resource plan under this section must complete its initial plan by September 1, 2008.
(8) Plans developed under this section must be updated on a regular basis, on intervals approved by the commission or the department, or at a minimum on intervals of two years.
(9) Plans shall not be a basis to bring legal action against electric utilities.
(10)(a) To maximize transparency, the commission, for investor-owned utilities, or the governing body, for consumer-owned utilities, may require an electric utility to make the utility's data input files available in a native format. Each electric utility shall publish its final plan either as part of an annual report or as a separate document available to the public. The report may be in an electronic form.
(b) Nothing in this subsection limits the protection of records containing commercial information under RCW 80.04.095.
(11) By December 31, 2021, the department and the commission must adopt rules establishing the requirements for incorporating the cumulative impact analysis developed under RCW 19.405.140 into the criteria for developing clean energy action plans under this section.

[ 2021 c 300 § 3; 2019 c 288 § 14; 2015 3rd sp.s. c 19 § 9; 2013 c 149 § 3; 2011 c 180 § 305; 2006 c 195 § 3.]
NOTES:

Intent—2021 c 300: See note following RCW 47.01.520.

Findings—Intent—Effective date—2019 c 288: See RCW 19.405.010 and 19.405.901.

Finding—Intent—2015 3rd sp.s. c 19: See note following RCW 39.35.010.

Findings—Purpose—2011 c 180: See note following RCW 80.80.010.