ABOUT
The "IRP-Local" concept was developed in 2018 by Larry E. Felton, owner of LEF-Engineering, PLLC of Richland, Washington. (The concept will receive a Trade Mark in 2019.) Prior to starting the PLLC, the owner worked for 45 years primarily for the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) and public power utilities of the City of Idaho Falls, Idaho and Okanogan Public Utility District (PUD) in North Central Washington State.
This concept is aimed at helping utilities deal with today's reality: maximize use of existing Transmission and Distribution infrastructure to avoid expensive additions to serve load growth. The best way to accomplish this goal is to be as self-sufficient within the utility's service territory by developing cost-effective local resources. This approach also gives the utility choices of: 1) What kind of new distributed energy resources it wants to have; 2) Where would be the best locations on the utilities system to avoid or mitigate system congestion that otherwise would require new T&D infrastructure; and 3) Least cost resources to serve load growth.
Larry E. Felton
Founder and Principal
Larry Felton worked for BPA that provided 8,000 MWa wholesale power supplier to its NW Public Power retail utilities. Mr. Felton also worked for two of BPA customers and as Power Manager & Power Resource Engineer. This unique background gave him the skills and experience to help utilities to look locally first before purchasing from the wholesale power market. Virtually any new power resource can be analyzed for its cost-effectiveness and ability to meet the utilities load.
Mr. Felton is experienced in transmission planning and design as well as for high voltage substations. He developed and managed a database of more than 20 years of hourly load and temperature data used to prepare load forecasts from day ahead to 20 years out into the future. These databases are essential to understanding and predicting the utility's short and long term loads when determining the need for new resources. He is an experienced power & transmission contract negotiator.