Idaho Power shut off some people’s electricity. In this heat? Are you kidding? | Opinion

Idaho Power has warned customers that it may shut off power to some customers in its coverage area. Some estimates show power could be lost for as much as 24 hours.

This is getting serious.

The temperature is 104 degrees, and you’re going to shut off electricity to Grandma’s house for 24 hours?

People could die in this heat without electricity.

The reason is to reduce wildfire risk due to high winds. It’s true that utility-caused wildfires are becoming a national problem, especially with increased global warming and climate change.

But the issue with the possibility of power lines starting fires is Idaho Power’s problem, yet they’re making it everyone else’s problem by taking away our electricity.

And they took the first step Wednesday, cutting power to 8,500 customers. Estimated restoration time: “working to determine,” a text message to customers said.

I seriously doubt all those customers whose electricity will get cut off will be getting any sort of credit on their bill for the disruption.

The situation is only going to get worse, as global warming increases and climate change wreaks havoc on our simple day-to-day living.

According to a 2020 analysis from climate science organization Climate Matters, Boise could experience 50 days at or above 100 degrees — over half of the summer — by the year 2100. The current record for days over 100 degrees in a calendar year for Boise is 23.

We have to come up with a better solution than what we’ve got. Clearly.

If only we had a technology that could ameliorate this situation, such as rooftop solar panels.

Why don’t we have solar panels on every single roof in the Treasure Valley?

The outages and the increased demand for electricity is a good opportunity to assess what we’re doing to plan for the future.

Unfortunately the Idaho Public Utilities Commission approved a plan last year that has the effect of disincentivizing rooftop solar projects, by lowering the reimbursement rate that rooftop solar panel customers can receive by putting electricity back into the grid. With batteries, a rooftop solar customer could produce their own electricity through an outage — regardless of the circumstances of the outage.

It’s ironic. We have a technology that would put more electricity into the grid, particularly on days when it’s most needed, but in order to protect the revenues of the power company, we make it less feasible to do so. Monday broke the record for Idaho Power’s power usage. Customers used 3,792 MW of power, beating out the June 30, 2021, record of 3,751. If more rooftop solar panels were online, it sure would have helped.

I get it. Idaho Power still needs revenue to conduct its operations and maintenance of the system.

But the bottom line is that the new “net billing” structure approved by the PUC makes it less economically feasible for average customers like you and me to install rooftop solar panels. And it really makes it out of reach for lower-income and low-use energy customers.

So instead of taking advantage of these increasing days of potentially fatal heat, we’re squandering the opportunity.

Instead of making it more advantageous for customers to provide their own electricity — when Idaho Power threatens to shut off the juice — the PUC made it much more difficult and expensive.

Fifty years from now, it will seem silly that we don’t have more rooftop solar — especially when there are 50 days out of the year with temperatures above 100.

Boise summers will only get worse from here on out.

Perhaps this summer will be bad enough to be a wake-up call that we should have solar panels on every rooftop in the Treasure Valley.