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Idaho Power - Ranking Dams Letter to Editor from Reed Burkholder of Boise June 2, 1999 Idaho Mountain Express

It's important to understand where each household in Idaho gets its electricity.

Let's look at the Idaho Power Company which serves about 60% of Idaho. It is supplied mainly by 20 dams and coal fired plants that it owns all or part of. In order of importance, its power plants are Jim Bridger (a Wyoming Coal Fired Plant 1/3 owned by Idaho Power), Brownlee, Hells Canyon, Oxbow, C.J. Strike, Bliss, American Falls, Lower Salmon Falls, Upper Salmon Falls, Swan Falls, Milner, Lower Malad, Boardman, Twin Falls, Shoshone Falls, Upper Malad, Thousand Springs, Cascade, Valmy, and Clear Lake.

Where are the 4 lower Snake River dams -- Lower Granite, Little Goose, Lower Monumental, and Ice Harbor -- the dams being considered for partial removal in order to aid Idaho's endangered salmon and steelhead runs?

They do not make the top 20 list. Together these federal dams supply Idaho Power with about 1/6 of one percent of its electricity.

Related pages:
Idaho Power (2001) - Ranking Dams
Electricity in Idaho & the Northwest

Power plants owned or partially owned by the Idaho Power Company		Generation (megawatt*hours)
1	Jim Bridger (coal fired) 1	4,439,166	29.8 %
2	Brownlee	3,004,328	20.2 %
3	Hells Canyon	2,486,939	16.7 %
4	Oxbow	1,230,228	8.3 %
5	C.J. Strike	490,015	3.3 %
6	Bliss	384,015	2.6 %
7	American Falls	358,598	2.4 %
8	Lower Salmon Falls	274,861	1.8 %
9	Upper Salmon Falls	266,657	1.8 %
10	Swan Falls	141,458	.95%
11	Milner	135,860	.91%
12	Lower Malad	115,259	.77%
13	Boardman (coal fired)	106,214	.71%
14	Twin Falls	104,129	.70%
15	Shoshone Falls	100,336	.67%
16	Upper Malad	64,008	.43%
17	Thousand Springs	57,426	.39%
18	Cascade	47,733	.32%
19	Valmy (coal fired)	46,162	.31%
20	Clear Lake	15,312	.10%
	Other 2	984,100
Lower Snake contribution 4			.17%
	Lower Granite 3	6,854	.046%
	Lower Monumental	6,838	.046%
	Little Goose	6,420	.043%
	Ice Harbor	5,086	.034%
Total Idaho Power		14,878,000

¹ Idaho Power Company "Uniform Statistical Report - Year ended 12/31/95 page E-17
² Includes purchases Idaho Power makes from power plants it does not own. Two examples of these are the little hydro facility at Barber Dam on the Boise about a mile upstream from the Barber Bridge. Another is the cogeneration facility at the Evergreen lumber mill between Council and New Meadows.
³ Extrapolated from the Bonneville Power Administration 1995 Annual Report and from a BPA data report entitled "Generation Received, Energy in Megawatt-hours, Year 1995"
⁴ About 1/6 of one percent of Idaho Power's supply of electricity (14,878,000 MWHs in 1995) came from the 4 lower Snake River dams.