2025 has been a busy year for the Council and the Power Division staff as they develop a new 20-year plan for the Pacific Northwest's electricity grid, which is called the Ninth Power Plan. With the end of the year fast approaching - and some critical analytical milestones and decision-making points looming early in 2026 - here is a recap of the Council's work on the Ninth Plan so far, and a timeline for what's going to happen next.
Our goal is to release a draft of the Ninth Plan to the public by mid-2026 and adopt it by November of that year. The Ninth Plan comes at a critical point with the region facing significant load growth and a shifting resource mix. This plan will put forward robust recommendations for how to cost-effectively meet those needs over the next twenty years.
Under the Northwest Power Act of 1980, the Pacific Northwest's approach to power grid planning is different from just about everywhere else in the U.S. It is a regionally coordinated, public process where everyone - utilities, groups, and individual citizens - can help decide how we meet our growing and evolving energy needs. We invite and encourage public participation throughout the region as we continue to develop the Ninth Plan in 2025-26.
About the Council's regional power system planning
The Council represents the states of Oregon, Idaho, Washington, and Montana in developing a 20-year power plan, which is reviewed and revised every five years. Key components are a 20-year load forecast, as well as a cost-effective strategy that identifies resources to add to the electricity grid to meet those future energy needs. The Power Plan aims to ensure the resource strategy meets the Council's adequacy metrics and thresholds, which protect the Northwest power supply's adequacy at peak demand periods.
Planning under uncertainty
Congress passed the Northwest Power Act with a specific mission to plan under uncertainty. Creating a plan that addresses the energy needs 20 years into the future in a region as broad and diverse as the Pacific Northwest requires an intricate and deeply analytical multi-year process.
Uncertainty is a fact of life in power grid planning. That's why Power Division staff uses a forecast range for load growth covering low, medium, and high trajectories. We also test different fuel prices, water years, wind profiles, solar profiles, and temperatures. We use scenario modeling to test more uncertainties, like the pace of expansion of the regional transmission system or the cost of resources.
By working collaboratively with utilities, Bonneville Power Administration, and many other regional partners over the past several decades, we've achieved a remarkable success story in regional power system planning in the Pacific Northwest. Our regional power costs have been among the lowest in the nation, while power supply shortages have been extremely rare. We're proud of this track record, and we're excited to work with the region to build on this legacy in our Ninth Plan.
What's coming up next?
Our goal is to wrap up scenario analysis in early 2026. During the Council's February, March, April, and May meetings, we will be discussing the results of the modeling and working to develop recommendations to include in the draft Ninth Power Plan. The goal is to release the draft Power Plan in July for public comment.
The Council will host a series of public hearings on the Ninth Plan in each of our four states in 2026, in addition to our monthly meetings. Stay tuned for upcoming announcements on meeting dates and locations in the Pacific Northwest in 2026.
Key progress to date
The Council adopted its most recent power plan in February 2022. We officially kicked off work on the Ninth Plan in February 2025. In between this time, the Council tracked regional progress towards 2021 Power Plan recommendations and started to prepare for the upcoming plan. This included:
- Developing a mid-term assessment of the 2021 Power Plan, which included tracking regional resource additions, energy efficiency, demand response, and new load growth, to provide continued guidance to the region between power plans
- Worked collaboratively to update the Council's adequacy standard for the Northwest grid to an innovative, multi-metric approach
- Upgraded our computer modeling for load forecasting and regional resource optimization
- Released an issue paper to solicit public feedback on topics to be considered during the development of the Ninth Power Plan
- Started to prepare data and assumptions for load forecasting and new resource options to inform the Ninth Power Plan analysis
- Consulted with regional partners through our advisory committees.
Load growth
For the Ninth Plan, the Council published results of its new 20-year load forecast in April. We used our new computer modeling capabilities to get a deep understanding of future energy needs that gets down to hourly, daily, monthly, and annual levels of demand from 2027-2046. This helps the Council better assess impacts on peak, including for future summer heatwaves and winter storms.
Council staff created five different load growth pathways across three different climate futures (15 total). This helps account for future uncertainty in economic conditions, the pace of electrification of buildings and transportation, and data center development in the Pacific Northwest.
