Columbia Basin Hydropower & Avista

Partner on New Clean Energy Contract

New agreement brings zero-carbon energy to Avista electric customers

SPOKANE Wash. – Dec. 7, 2022 – Avista and Columbia Basin Hydropower (CBHP) finalized a contract recently for renewable hydropower from hydroelectric facilities owned by the three Columbia Basin Irrigation Districts. The contract increases Avista’s carbon-free resources in its energy portfolio, helping achieve the company’s clean electricity goals and supporting Washington state’s adoption of the Clean Energy Transformation Act that increases utilities’ supply of clean energy through 2045.

 CBHP’s projects represent approximately 145 MWs of hydroelectric capacity from seven facilities throughout the Columbia Basin Project in central Washington. The agreement is a 23-year supply deal in total with projects beginning deliveries to Avista as prior contracts expire through 2030. The generation is provided during spring, summer, and fall based on irrigation water demand throughout the Columbia Basin.

 The contract is the result of Avista’s participation in CBHP’s Request for Offers in November 2021. The projects contribute to goals in Avista’s 2021 IRP which identified both renewable and summer energy needs.

 Hydropower generation on Columbia Basin Project (CBP) canals began in 1982 with the commissioning of the Russell D. Smith plant located in Franklin County, soon followed by an additional six hydropower facilities within Grant and Franklin Counties.  Over the past 40 years hydrogeneration has proven to be a good investment and a sound source of revenue to offset costs and invest in improvements for the CBP landowners.  “Moving into this new contract, CBHP believes Avista will be a great partner as our new power purchaser,” said Darvin Fales, CBHP’s Manager.  “With our largest powerplants located within Avista’s service area and directly connected to its transmission grid, it makes sense to partner with a local likeminded company and neighbor.”   

 “Avista was founded on renewable hydropower more than 130 years ago. We are proud to work with Columbia Basin Hydropower to bring even more clean, reliable power to our customers,” said Scott Kinney, Avista’s vice president of energy resources. “This brings us closer to our goal to serve customers with 100% clean electricity by 2045 and 100% carbon neutral resources by 2027.”

 Looking forward, Avista is continuing to negotiate proposals that may result in additional energy contracts.  These potential future contracts are in response to Avista’s 2022 All Source Request for Proposals.

 About Columbia Basin Hydropower

CBHP was created and organized by the Columbia Basin Irrigation Districts (East Columbia Basin Irrigation District, Quincy-Columbia Basin Irrigation District, and South Columbia Basin Irrigation District) in 1982 as a separate legal entity authorized by the Washington state legislature.

 CBHP presently performs operation, maintenance, and administrative functions for five of the seven hydropower projects owned by the Districts - Main Canal Headworks, Summer Falls, Russell D. Smith, Eltopia Branch Canal (E.B.C.) 4.6, and Potholes East Canal (P.E.C.) 66.0. The five hydropower developments operated and maintained by CBHP were developed through forty-year power purchase agreements with the Cities of Seattle and Tacoma. The remaining two hydropower projects owned by the Districts, Quincy Chute and P.E.C. Headworks, are currently operated by Grant PUD as the power purchaser. CBHP will take over operation and maintenance of these projects upon contract expiration in 2025 and 2030, respectively. The generation produced by the projects benefits the local economy and the farmers of the Columbia Basin Project by providing an additional source of revenue to offset costs of operation and capital investments.

About Avista Utilities

Avista Corp. is an energy company involved in the production, transmission and distribution of energy as well as other energy-related businesses. Avista Utilities is our operating division that provides electric service to 408,000 customers and natural gas to 375,000 customers. Our service territory covers 30,000 square miles in eastern Washington, northern and parts of southern Idaho and eastern Oregon, with a population of 1.7 million. AERC is an Avista subsidiary that, through its subsidiary AEL&P, provides retail electric service to 17,000 customers in the city and borough of Juneau, Alaska. Our stock is traded under the ticker symbol “AVA”. For more information about Avista, please visit www.avistacorp.com.

This news release contains forward-looking statements regarding the company’s current expectations. Forward-looking statements are all statements other than historical facts. Such statements speak only as of the date of the news release and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the company’s control, which could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations. These risks and uncertainties include, in addition to those discussed herein, all of the factors discussed in the company’s and the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2022, and its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2021.

Avista Corp. and the Avista Corp. logo are trademarks of Avista Corporation.

 SOURCE: Avista Corporation For more information, press only:

Casey Fielder, Avista, casey.fielder@avistacorp.com

Avista 24/7 Media Access (509) 495-4174

SCBID Announces 2022 Water Shutoff Dates

As the end of the 2022 irrigation season approaches, the South Columbia Basin Irrigation District will soon scale back ditchrider service from 6 days to 5 days per week. This is done annually as irrigation water demand declines. Full Saturday service will be provided through September 17th. After that date, ditchrider service will be available Monday through Friday.

The final day to order water delivery changes will be Friday, October 21. On Monday, October 24, ditchriders will close all farm unit and water service contract turnouts as they begin to drain the canal system.

Questions pertaining to the water shutoff dates and Saturday ditch rides may be answered by calling John O’Callaghan at the South Columbia Basin Irrigation District, (509) 547-1735. For emergencies that arise outside of our normal business hours, you may also call this number and wait for the appropriate prompts to reach your watermaster office.

Report: $2.66 Billion Annual Crop Value of Columbia Basin Project

by Matthew Weaver, Capital Press

Crops in the Columbia Basin Project are valued at $2.66 billion each year, or roughly $3,800 per acre, according to a recent study from the three irrigation districts within the federal project.

The report estimates an additional $2.671 billion as the estimated value of animal and food processing production reliant on project crops.

The new report updates a 2010 study on the economic value of the project, said John O'Callaghan, secretary-manager of the South Columbia Basin Irrigation District in Pasco, Wash.

"The (project) is an economic engine, churning away producing things that society requires at a fundamental level — food, fiber, economic opportunities, social opportunities, recreational opportunities, and fish and wildlife habitat — and will continue to do so well into the future," O'Callaghan told the Capital Press.

The South, East and Quincy Columbia Basin irrigation districts commissioned the study.

"The asset that is the Columbia Basin Project is taken for granted — from the food we eat to the jobs we hold, to the places we call home or our playground," said Sara Higgins, executive director of the Columbia Basin Development League, which advocates for project completion. "These things wouldn't exist without the (project). That's significant enough to pay attention to, understand, support, maintain and grow."

The project was authorized by Congress to irrigate 1,029,000 acres, but to date, the infrastructure of reservoirs and canals irrigates about 700,000 acres in portions of Grant, Adams, Franklin and Walla Walla counties, with some land in Lincoln County authorized but not yet receiving water, according to the league.

Funding is the biggest need to complete the Odessa Groundwater Replacement Program, reinvest in aging infrastructure and overall completion of the project, Higgins said.

"The value of the (project) is compromised if a declining aquifer prevents continued production at current rates," she said. "Completion of the (project) will increase the value of its contributions, not only economically, but also in areas like food security and sustainability."

The project is not directly dependent on the Snake River dams compared to inland agriculture, O'Callaghan said. But transportation, energy and agribusiness systems are complex and inter-related, he said, "in ways that are hard to understand until they stop functioning."

"For example, it is tempting to say that because CBP wheat may not be barged through the dams, that we don’t rely on those dams for transporting wheat from the project," he said. "But if that barging capacity were to go away suddenly, I suspect we would witness a large adverse ripple effect throughout other means of transporting commodities from the project. All of us have seen some of these kinds of counterintuitive disruptions to the larger supply chain over the last couple of years."

The irrigation districts and league will share the updated data with stakeholders and policy makers, Higgins said.

View the article here:

https://www.capitalpress.com/ag_sectors/water/report-2-66-billion-annual-crop-value-of-columbia-basin-project/article_97a28226-02f4-11ed-b806-afa3e9d05bb7.html

View the Economic Contribution of Irrigated Agriculture Supported by the Columbia Basin Project here

Water Shut-Off Dates for October 2021

The final day to order water delivery changes has been extended to Monday, October 25th. Ditchriders will close all farm unit and water service contract turnouts as they begin to drain the canal system on Tuesday, October 26th.

Questions pertaining to the water shutoff dates may be answered by calling your watermaster officer or Secretary/Manager John O’Callaghan at the district office, (509) 547-1735.  For emergencies that arise outside of our normal business hours, you may also call this number and wait for the appropriate prompts to reach your watermaster office.