PSE’s Wind Farm Has To Wait

DAYTON - Construction of Puget Sound Energy's Lower Snake River Wind Energy Project in Garfield County started about four months after the company obtained approval for its con­ditional use permit this year. Don't expect the same for the Columbia County portion of the wind turbine project, a company official said earlier this week. The weak economy in the utility company's Washington state market appears to have taken the wind out of the project's blades. "PSE has no firm plans for the start of construction at this time" said Anne Walsh, PSE's senior environmental and community relations manager. "We have to see how things move forward."

She all but ruled out con­struction in 2011 and 2012.

Weak demand for elec­tricity, uncertain prospects for federal clean-energy in­centives

and the company's projected success in reaching state standards for renewable power (Renewable Portfolio Standard) all mean there is no rush to build any of the 351 wind turbines for which it hopes to gain approval in the county. Earlier this year, a hearing examiner gave a green light to the project's conditional use permit, but a county ho­meowner is challenging it on appeal. The first appeal hear­ing, which was scheduled for Aug. 5 in Columbia County Superior Court, has been moved to Aug. 19 in Walla Walla County.

At a recent meeting, PSE informed the Columbia County landowners with whom it has signed lease agreements for the turbines that it is committed to the project but won't be building any of the towers soon. Walsh said the timing of its projects is driven by sev­eral factors. One of them is demand for its power, which has dropped because of the sluggish economy. Based in Bellevue, PSE has roughly 1 million customers in parts of a region that stretches from the Canadian border to Chehalis and the Olympic Peninsula to Ellensburg.

Another factor is a re­quirement from the state that power companies begin deriving a certain portion of their energy from clean, sustainable sources such as wind and sun - the so-called Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard. PSE must have 3 percent of its portfolio in clean en­ergy by 2012, a requirement it expects to meet in part be­cause of the Garfield County portion of the Lower Snake River Wind Energy Project. Once on line in 2012, its 149 turbines will supply 343

megawatts of electricity.

However, the state re­quires utilities to have 9 per­cent of their power sources in clean energy by 2016 and 15 percent by 2020. The construction of the Columbia County turbines is an im­portant part of reaching that goal, Walsh said, hence her prediction that the project won't be on hold forever. Still, some local officials said the news is a setback for the county, which stands to gain a number of construc­tion phase jobs and perma­nent jobs once the project gets underway here. PSE's decision to hold off on imple­mentation

for now comes at a time when the future of one of the county's largest employers, Ski Bluewood, is also uncertain. "It's a disappointment," said Lisa Ronnberg, director of the Dayton Chamber of Commerce. "A lot of people are looking forward to work those jobs, rent their homes and sell things. There are a lot of things in play."

County Commissioner Dwight Robanske said he wasn't necessarily discour­aged though the sooner con­struction can start the better. "We'd like to have it as soon as possible, but we understand the economics involved," he said. "If not in the next two years, we should have it in the near future."

Walsh said PSE has been focused on the permitting process for nearly three years. Getting everything lined up for eventual construction is a critical element of its business-expansion plan. But the time it takes to get approvals also means mar­ket

conditions can change between the planning and implementation phases of a project, thus changing a proj­ect's schedule. "It takes years to put these things together," she said.