Physics knowledge shared in Moses Lake

PUD rep. talks about resource planning

MOSES LAKE - Instructors and students learned about energy and physics last week at a Pacific Northwest Association for College Physics conference.

The conference was Friday and Saturday at Big Bend Community College.

Big Bend physics instructor Jim Hamm, who helped organize the event, said approximately 50 people attended Friday. Fewer people attended Saturday.

Conference-goers came from Alaska, Idaho, Montana and Washington. One presenter traveled from Texas, Hamm said. Speakers from Grant County included PUD Power Management Director Kevin Nordt and Shawn Bowen, of REC Silicon.

Former U.S. Congressman Mike McCormack addressed attendees at a Friday night banquet.

"I had a few students who came to a couple of different parts of (the conference)," Hamm said.

A large number of students attending were from Walla Walla University, he said.

Hamm said the conference benefits him because he is the only physics instructor at the college. He said there are many other instructors from small schools in the same situation.

Presenter Kevin Nordt of the Grant County PUD spoke to conference attendees about future resource planning. He said the PUD serves 43,000 retail customers and employees 500 people.

The organization is an industry leader in many areas, including regional transmission coordination, natural resource stewardship, policy development, marketing, hydropower operations and grid reliability, Nordt said.

The PUD is experiencing "almost unprecedented load growth," he said. He noted the forecast includes a growth of 7 percent to 10 percent per year during the next five to 10 years.

"Most utilities haven't seen anything like we're seeing in Grant County now," he said.

Nordt provided examples of how physics concepts are applied at the PUD. The main part of his presentation was about the PUD's engagement in integrated resource planning.

"The process (of integrated resource planning) combines technical, economic, social, and regulatory requirements into an optimal business plan," he said.

An evaluation of all options from the viewpoints of supply and demand is included in the planning, Nordt said.

He stressed the need to use a blend of energies, rather than a single type.

He said in the 1960s, the answer was nuclear plants. In the 1980s, it was natural gas. In the new millennium, the answer turned to wind and renewable energies.

"One of the things we're striving to do is get a nice blended portfolio where we don't rule out anything, but we don't put all our eggs in one basket," he said.

He said building what is cheapest pushes toward a big investment not easily reversed.

The process of integrated resource planning includes several steps, such as identifying the plan's objectives, forecasting the cost and demand of resources, limiting alternatives, developing resource portfolios, and evaluating the portfolios under various future predictions.