Construction is underway in Oregon on a new 500 megawatt power line that will serve Idaho Power customers. It’s known as the Boardman to Hemingway line, or B2H. Opponents continue to push back, seizing on an updated plan for the use of the power showing the new line might be used for a data center instead of for traditional customers.
The transmission line will carry mostly hydropower-produced energy between Boardman, in Oregon along the Columbia River, to Idaho Power’s existing Hemingway substation in Wilson, Idaho, just south of the Snake River near Melba.
Co-owner PacifiCorp first announced its energy distribution plans were changing at an April meeting of Oregon’s Utility Commission. The utility told regulators it would recoup costs for the line from a single industrial customer. That development was recently reported by the Oregonian newspaper.
It is suspected, but not confirmed, that the single industrial user is Amazon, which has a significant number of sites for its AWS data hosting service already in the Boardman area.
Idaho Power, the line’s other co-owner, is using eminent domain to build towers along the transmission line’s 300-mile path. Opponents say not using the power to serve traditional customers invalidates that authority to use private land because the energy won’t serve the broader public good. They’ve appealed to the Oregon Public Utilities Commission asking the authority be revoked.
Idaho Power is compensating landowners for use of their land, and while some are still fighting the towers. Most land agreements needed are in place, according to Idaho Power spokesman Brad Bowlin. Construction began earlier this year.
“There's transmission towers going up in various places; roads being placed to get equipment to where it needs to go,” he told Boise State Public Radio.
Some landowners have taken the utility to court, but the line is planned to be operational in 2027. Bowlin said what PacifiCorp does with its 55% ownership of power carried on the line will not change how much energy comes east to serve Idaho Power customers.
“The primary purpose for the line, as far as Idaho Power is concerned, is to meet our customers’ peak energy needs in the summer, and that's largely driven by irrigation and residential use,” he said.
The B2H transmission line could provide as much as half the megawatts Idaho Power projects it will need to meet skyrocketing energy needs over the next ten years. The Utility predicts energy use will rise 32% over the next ten years.
Opponents of the transmission line will make their case to disqualify eminent domain authority before the Oregon Public Utility Commission Nov. 13. The StopB2H Coalition did not respond to a request for comment.
Correction: a previous version of this online story included a quote about peak energy usage rising 76% between now and 2035. That percentage increase is instead for the time period of 2005-2035. The forecast increase over the next ten years is 32% according to Idaho Power.
