Well, it looks like everybody's got it found a nice comfy seat. So we'll go ahead and get started. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I am Daryl Anderson, President and Chief Executive Officer of IDACORP and Idaho Power and a Director of both companies. On behalf of the directors, officers and employees of IDACORP family of companies, I would like to welcome everyone to the 20th Annual Meeting of Shareholders of IDACORP.
If we were holding an annual meeting for Idaho Power, this would be its 103rd Annual Meeting. I'm not sure how many folks that were at that first one that are here today, but if you are, welcome. It's a pleasure to have this opportunity to discuss with you our performance and the opportunities we see as we look to the future. I think it's important to start every meeting, whether it's a meeting on outside of this office or inside, with a safety message. And so in that regard, if there is an emergency that requires us to evacuate this room, there are 2 exits that you should familiarize yourself with.
They include the door in the back that you, Jason came through and also to the door here to my left, they also will get you out of this building. We ask that in the event of an emergency, you relocate to the south parking lot, which is that way, across Main Street and to not reenter the building until instructed to do so. Our safety and security personnel, who you might see wearing red shirts, are available to help you those and with other assistance as necessary. Now I'd like to take the opportunity to recognize the directors of our company, who are all in attendance today and are seated in the front of the room. You can find information on our directors in the proxy statement for the annual meeting, so I'm not going to go through their biographies now.
I would though ask the directors to stand as I call your name. Tom Carlisle, Richard Dahl, Annette Elge, Ron Jipson, Judy Johansson, Dennis Johnson, Christine King, Rick Navarro and Bob Tinseman, our Board Chair. Please join me in giving our Board of Directors a round of applause. Before I move on, I would also like to recognize our officer team for both IDACORP and Idaho Power. I want to recognize them for their leadership and service to our organization.
So for our officers, will you please stand when I call your name? Lisa Groh, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Steve Keen, Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer Lonnie Kroll, Senior Vice President of Administrative Services and Chief Human Resource Officer Jeff Mahlmann, Senior Vice President of Public Affairs Brian Buckham, Senior Vice President and General Counsel Jeff Glenn, our Vice President of Information Technology and Chief Information Officer Tess Park, our Vice President of Power Supply Ken Peterson, our Vice President, Controller and Chief Accounting Officer Vern Porter, our Vice President, Transmission Distribution, Engineering and Construction as well as our Chief Safety Officer Adam Richens, Vice President of Customer Operations and Business Development and Tim Tatum, our Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and last but not least, our Corporate Secretary, Pat Harrington. We have an outstanding leadership team and one that I am very excited to have an opportunity to work with and they are committed to serving you, our owners, as well as our customers and employees. This combined group has almost 250 years of experience serving the company. So please join me in giving your senior leadership team a round of applause.
And they're also a lot of fun to work with. So when you entered the auditorium today, you found on your chair an agenda describing the order of business and procedures for conducting today's meeting. We will first conduct the formal business meeting and then we will adjourn and I will provide some additional comments about our company in the informal portion of the meeting. Following that, I and other officers will be happy to answer your questions. Today's presentation is being recorded and webcast live.
A complete replay will be available at the end of the day for the next 12 months on our website. I'd like to remind everyone that the presentation today does contain forward looking statements, which are statements that relate to future events or expectations. It is important to note the company's future results could differ materially from those discussed at this meeting. A discussion of factors that could cause future results to differ materially can be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, particularly on our annual report on Form 10 ks. I encourage you to review those documents as well as other documents we filed with the SEC and our various press releases.
It is now my pleasure to officially call the 2018 Annual Meeting of IDACORP shareholders to order. The Annual Meeting is being held 1st, to elect the 10 directors nominated by the Board of Directors for a 1 year term 2nd, to address an advisory resolution to approve executive compensation 3rd, to ratify the appointment of the independent registered public accounting firm and 4th, to transact such other business as may properly come before the meeting. IDACORP has approximately 43,000 shareholders located throughout the United States and beyond. The results of shareholder voting for the Annual Meeting are typically determined by the return of proxies from shareholders who are not present and those results are known to us today. All shareholders or proxy holders who attend the meeting in person are entitled to cast their ballots at this meeting and revoke any previously granted proxy if they choose to do so.
So before moving to the business matters to be considered at this administrative matters that need to be taken care of for conducting the meeting. I have been advised that a majority of the shareholder voting power outstanding is represented at this meeting by proxy. Therefore, a quorum exists for the transaction of business. In accordance with IDACORP's bylaws, no matters other than those stated in the proxy statement or properly raised by a shareholder in accordance with the advanced notice provisions of the bylaws can be considered at this meeting. We will now proceed with the formal business of IDACORP's 2018 annual meeting.
The first item for action by shareholders is the election of directors. Ten nominees are up for election at this meeting. The 10 director nominees as set forth in the proxy statement are Thomas E. Carlisle, Richard J. Dahl, Annette G.
Elge, Ronald W. Jibson, Judith A. Johansen, Dennis L. Johnson, Christine King, Richard J. Navarro, Robert A.
Tinsman and myself, Darryl T. Anderson. These ten directors have been nominated for 1 year terms to expire at the 2019 Annual Meeting. The IDACOR Board of Directors has unanimously recommended a vote for the nominees. The second order of business is the advisory resolution to approve executive compensation.
This advisory resolution is commonly referred to as the say on pay vote. The IDACORP Board of Directors has unanimously recommended a vote for this proposal. The 3rd order of business is the ratification of the appointment of IDACORP's independent registered public accounting firm, Deloitte and Touche LLP for 2018. The IDACOR Board of Directors has unanimously recommended a vote for this proposal. I now declare the poll is open and we will proceed to vote on the 3 matters presented at the meeting.
Shareholders present at this meeting who have already submitted proxies do not need to vote by ballot. If you have revoked your proxy or if you have not voted your proxy and desire to vote on any of the matters properly presented to this meeting, you should have received ballots when you registered today. If you did not receive a ballot and you own common stock as of the record date of March 27 and want to vote on any of the items at today's meetings, please raise your hand and we'll provide you with ballots. Anybody needs to do that? Everybody's turned in their votes?
Okay. Very good. So based on all of that, the IDACORP proxy committee has voted all shares represented by proxy in accordance with the instructions in each proxy on all three matters. Based on the proxies received prior to the start of this meeting, the preliminary results of the voting are as follows: 8 of the 10 director nominees named in the proxy statement has been elected to serve on the Board of Directors for a 1 year term. The advisory resolution on executive compensation has passed and the ratification of the appointment of the independent registered public accounting firm for the year 2018 has passed.
Mr. Scott Loveless, a partner at Deloitte and Touche LLP, our independent auditor is invited to make any statement he desires regarding the independent auditors audit of the books and records of IDACORP. Mr. Loveless, do you have any statements you wish to make? Thank you for the opportunity and
none at this time.
Thank you, Scott. Appreciate that. So this concludes all items scheduled for action at this Annual Meeting of Shareholders. The business portion of this meeting is adjourned and now we will move on to the informal portion of the meeting. Before we move on to my comments, we would like to show you a short video that recaps 2017 activities.
In 2017, IDACORP enjoyed a year of growth and success, bolstered by a renewed customer focus and continued economic development across Southern Idaho and Eastern Oregon, Idaho Power achieved financial and operational excellence while serving more customers than ever before. 2017 marked our 10th consecutive year of earnings growth, ending with earnings of $4.21 per diluted share. Customer growth of 2% helped increase general business revenue by $60,000,000 compared with 2016. Net income increased $14,100,000 Once again, we preserve tax credits under the Idaho regulatory stipulation for potential use in future years. If the recently filed settlement stipulation relating to the 2017 Tax Act is approved, the $45,000,000 in tax credits would remain available.
This settlement also will return approximately $26,000,000 to Idaho customers. We also finished the year with under 350,000,000 dollars of O and M expenses, putting us near that mark for the 60 year in a row. Efforts to control costs continue to pay off for the company and its shareholders. In early 2017, we launched our customer experience strategy, including an overhaul of several customer touch points. Those efforts were evident when our score in the J.
D. Power residential customer satisfaction survey increased 39 points to 743, the highest residential satisfaction score the company has ever achieved. Our paperless billing program continues to grow in popularity with 46,000 customers enrolled by the end of 2017. That equals an annual savings of more than $225,000 In the fall, we launched our newly redesigned website. It's adaptive to any device and makes it easier than ever for customers to connect with us.
Idaho Power continues to pursue enhancements to the grid and achieved an important milestone in 2017. In November, the BLM released its record of decision for the 300 mile Boardman to Hemingway transmission line. Negotiations with Idaho PUC staff during 2017 resulted in an agreement that 2 $16,000,000 in Health Canyon relicensing costs incurred to date were reasonable. Approved expenses were anticipated to be recovered in a future rate case. 2 key reliability projects from the Wood River Electrical Plan made progress.
We received validation from the Idaho PUC for the need for the proposed transmission line between Haley and Ketchum. And we completed reconstruction of the 60 mile transmission line between Hagerman and Haley. New steel poles replaced the 1960s era wood poles. The company continued its efforts to end participation in the coal fired operation of Balmy Unit 1 by the end of 2019 and Unit 2 by the end of 2025. This, along with the scheduled shutdown of the Boardman, Oregon Coal Plant at the end of 2020, is expected to further reduce Idaho Power's carbon footprint.
The company exceeded its CO2 emissions intensity reduction goals in 2017, with both total emissions and emissions intensity reaching new lows. Idaho Power's service area remains a hotbed for economic and residential growth, driven in large part by our diverse portfolio, reliable service and low prices. In fact, Idaho came in at number 6 on CNBC's list of America's 10 Chief Estates to Live in 2017, which analyzed a variety of factors, including residents' monthly energy bills. Idaho had the 2nd lowest electricity rates on that list. And more recently, Boise was named the number 1 fastest growing city in America by Forbes Magazine.
Our culture of safety continues to make strides with OSHA recordable injuries down as well as the reduction in the severity of injuries. 4 President's Awards for safety were presented in 2017. 1 recognized station's battery technician, Dioni Amuchistegi, for speaking up about a water bottle hazard. A short video we produced went viral, making appearances for weeks in countries around the world. Idaho Power employees continue to make a big difference in the environment and their communities.
In 2017, line crews unexpectedly rescued an osprey and a large honeybee colony, while biologists and archaeologists continued their habitat work at Beja Island. In addition, employee contributions to community organizations totaled more than $272,000 Our employees are generous and civic minded. Together, we've built a strong and respected brand for our company. Our more than 100 years of reliable service and community involvement have earned trust from customers and share owners. 2018 is off to a great start.
We look forward to another year of integrity, safety, respect and company wide success.
So
So kudos to our internal communications team for putting what I thought is just a fantastic summary of how 2017 ended up. And by all accounts, I would say that it was a very successful 2017. We accomplished a lot. We are focused on our long term business strategy, which has 4 key elements: grow revenues, improve the core business, enhance the brand and focus on safety and employee engagement. Continued execution on our strategy did contribute to our 10th consecutive year of earnings growth, an impressively long period without Idaho Power having to use any of its additional tax credits under its Idaho regulatory stipulation.
This allowed us to increase our dividend again in 2017. We also achieved outstanding total shareholder return results and strong customer satisfaction scores. Our strategy is geared towards generating long term value for you, our shareholders. However, it does so with a consideration of the interest of and impacts on a broad set of stakeholders and that is what I want to focus on today. Our core values of IDACORP are safety, integrity and respect.
It is our expectation that all employees will act with integrity, respect and an emphasis on safety and everything they do on behalf of our company. We also have had a mission and vision statement for a number of years. And recently, we have undertaken an effort to re examine and potentially reimagine our mission and vision. As a component of that exercise, we are looking at not only how we as a company will work to generate long term growth and value for you, our shareholders, but also our responsibility to and impact on our employees, our customers and the communities we serve. Some prominent corporate governance commentators have recently stated that organizations should consider their impact on society.
I believe that IDACORP has been doing this for some time by considering impact on a broad set of stakeholders in the decisions we make. Today, I want to talk about 4 stakeholder groups some of the things we do as an organization to advance their interests that together help generate enduring shareholder value. The 4 groups are our shareholders, our customers, our community and our employees. I'm going to start with our customers. Without our customers, we wouldn't have much to do.
During 2017, we created a customer intent statement. We want our customers to feel that they matter that their electric utility is innovative and easy to do business with as well as involved in their communities. The statement highlights the importance of looking at our business through our customers' eyes. The notion that our customers matter is not a new concept, just one now that has an added emphasis. We power homes, businesses, machines, cars and many of the other aspects of our customers' daily lives.
Most recently, we started powering cryptocurrency miners, which is vastly different from the silver miners we started powering early last century. We do not take our responsibility lightly, understanding that 20 fourseven service reliability and fair prices are both very important to our customers. We serve a customer base that has diverse and sometimes conflicting interests. And at times, they are passionate about the issues. Some of our customers are interested almost exclusively in the lowest possible energy prices.
Other customers are not as price sensitive and are focused on the source of the energy and our resource portfolio mix. These can be tough interest to balance, but we try to do so with a diverse balanced resource portfolio and through processes like the integrated resource plan, the customer advisory group and our energy efficiency programs. I believe one thing nearly all our customers want and expect is for Idaho Power to be a good citizen and promote our communities. We believe that our continued environmental stewardship, significant carbon emission reductions and constructive regulatory relationships targeted at fair outcomes also serve to enhance our brand in the eyes of our customers. To help keep rates low for customers and to continue to power their lives, we are focused on improving operations and controlling expenditures.
For 6 years now, we have held operating and maintenance expenses relatively flat, which has helped delay Idaho Power's need to file general rate case. We're also focused on power supply costs, working to keep those costs low, particularly in light of several years of increasing costs associated with PURPA wind and solar power purchases. For 2017, we filed with the Idaho Public Utilities Commission our first power cost adjustment decrease request in several years. Last month, we also went live with the energy and balanced market, which we expect will reduce costs and enhance operational flexibility. By expanding the geographic and resource footprint, the Western region can share generation resources, which helps drive cleaner, more affordable energy into the grid.
Benefits from the expectation of reduced costs will flow back to customers. Another area our customers have been asking about is electric vehicles. Hopefully, you've had a chance to take a look at some of those that are out there on the patio out there. To help satisfy those that have an interest, we continue to increase our efforts on the electric vehicle front and have a team working on increasing EV adoption. And if you have a chance, you want to see Billy McGinn, who sitting down here in the audience today, she would love to share everything we're doing on EVs.
We are working with the State of Idaho on the deployment of the Volkswagen settlement funds to expand the network of charging stations across Interstate 84 corridor as well as ancillary state highways along that corridor. With the continued development of extended range for electric vehicles as well as the expectation of over 200 different models to choose from by 2020, I believe we will see increased adoption of electric vehicles across Southern Idaho and Idaho Power will be there to help power them. We are also working with business and government customers on electrification of other transportation models, including buses, shuttle vehicles and airport rolling stock. We believe that the use of electricity for transportation is both efficient and environmentally beneficial. We are also continuing our effort to improve our customers' experience with us generally.
We are in the service business and our customers are top of mind. We have streamlined several customer touch points to make it easier for people to do business with us. I think our efforts in focusing on our customers are paying off as our customer service scores have improved both under our internal surveys and as measured by J. D. Power.
We had the 2nd highest J. D. Power score for both our residential and business customers among our peer group in the most recent published results. We believe that some of our upcoming technology upgrades and our focus on making easier for our customers to do business with us will continue to enhance our customer satisfaction. Another area of focus for some of our customers is on-site generation or net metering.
Many individuals and groups have an interest in on-site generation and there has been considerable dialogue and debate on the issue. Like other utilities, Idaho Power has advocated for change in terms of service for customers with on-site generation on the basis of fairness for all customers. Customers with private on-site generation have a two way relationship with the grid and they use the grid every hour of every day to receive and deliver energy. However, Idaho Power's rates were designed for a one way use of the grid. We believe now is the time to modernize this important service offering and advance the dialogue on this issue.
Earlier this month, the Idaho Commission determined that a separate class is warranted for customers that have on-site generation, and we look forward to working with stakeholders to ensure that this service continues in a manner that is both fair and sustainable into the future. The next group of stakeholders I want to address is our community at large. Of course, most people in our community are also our customers, but I want to address some other broader issues. In today's world, the services we deliver have to be more than just reliable and fair price. They must also represent a responsible use of resources we share with our communities.
There's a lot I could talk about here. As I've stated before, we see the industry changing and we see part of that change and we are going to be part of that change. Environmental regulations, which continue to be in flux, have impacted coal plant economics. We are charged with keeping the lights on 365 days a year and the laws of physics are unyielding. To satisfy our obligation to serve every one of the customers in our service area day and night, we need baseload resource.
That is the resource that generate power when the sun does not shine, when the wind does not blow and when hydroelectric power alone is not sufficient to satisfy those demands. Renewable energy alone is not enough and utility scale battery storage is also insufficient alone as a replacement and is currently very expensive. Hopefully, costs will come down on battery storage as the technology develops as I do believe there could be opportunities in that area. We will continue to monitor that closely as we do have company owned endos feeder solar facilities installed on our system and we are monitoring their effectiveness as a proof of concept pilot. So far so good on the technical sides of these unique situations.
Unlike most electric utilities in this country, we do have the benefit of a resource portfolio that averages 50% hydropower, an inexpensive baseload resource that also allows us to integrate the substantial amount of intermittent resources that has been added to our system under power purchase contracts over the past several years. As Idaho Power moves further away from coal with the closing of Boardman in 2020 and our proposal to end participation in North Baumy in 2019 2025 and as we continue to evaluate the plans for the Jim Bridger plant, we will be looking at other resources to meet the shortfall we expect that will result. Our preferred resource from the integrated resource planning process, the Boardman to Hemingway transmission line offers both cost and environmental benefits. As our recent integrated resource plan illustrates the ability to import energy on our proposed Boardman to Hemingway transmission line rather than build new generation facilities saves our customers money and provides the opportunity to share existing resources in the region and decrease carbon emissions. Just last month, the Oregon Public Utility Commission acknowledged the Boardman to Hemingway line as a preferred resource and we look forward to a decision by the Oregon Energy Facility Siding Council later this year as another major milestone for this very important project.
The next slide highlights Idaho Power's emissions history and resource portfolio mix. We sell the renewable energy credits that come from the renewable energy for a regulatory directive, so we do not retire them and claim them claim that we deliver that energy to customers. However, we do enable that energy through our direct purchases from the generators and it is part of our resource mix. Many of you know about Idaho Power's voluntary carbon emission intensity goal, which we have met in the past and for which we have raised the bar. The graphic on the screen depicts that progress.
I view this as very impressive, particularly in light of there being no statutory mandate to decrease those emissions. Want to commend the employees who have worked on resource optimization, hydro upgrades, cloud seeding, renewable energy integration and interconnection and other projects to help make those reductions a reality. Separate from generation plants, projects like our advanced metering infrastructure rollout have eliminated significant vehicle emissions by reducing millions of miles of driving by our employees. We continue to look for additional innovative approaches in this area. Last year at this time, I discussed the potential for a community solar program, interest from our customers has been very limited.
However, we do know that some of our customers are very passionate about the project and we are back to the drawing board looking for ways to make the project more desirable to customers who are interested. Without tax benefits of the magnitude seen in a few other states or absent allocating the additional cost to non participating customers, the economics of the project for potential participating customers are dissuading. But we continue to look for a solution. I mentioned hydropower earlier. Hydropower's Snake River hydroelectric projects are the backbone of our company and have been since the company's inception over 100 years ago.
We take our participation in the stewardship of the river and its tributaries very seriously and we look for ways to work with others to manage them for the benefit of the community. We have been working on our Snake River stewardship program aimed at improving the watershed and restoring riparian areas. As part of our commitment to the river and our community, we maintain numerous parks, boat ramps and other recreational facilities that are second to none. As a final note on how we benefit our communities, I want to mention Idaho Power's impact on the economy. Idaho and Oregon have both been focused on economic development.
We asked many of our commercial industrial customers why they chose our service area to do business. Admittedly, reliable and fair price energy was only one of many factors choosing to expand existing facilities or site new facilities in Idaho Power service area, but it was an important factor nonetheless. Economic development encouraged in part by low energy prices helps expand employment opportunities in our communities. I only scratched the surface of what Idaho Power does with an aim towards considering and benefiting our community. I encourage our shareholders to review the most recent sustainability report and it's right here and I believe it's being posted up online so you can get a chance to take a look at that.
There's a lot of great information in there. But go out and take a look at that on Idaho Power's website for information on areas that include energy efficiency, our historic building preservation efforts, low income programs, safety and STEM program promotion, employee volunteerism and charitable contributions. I think you will be impressed. In this year's sustainability report for the first time we include a section on climate change adaptation. We dedicated some additional time last year in considering the impact that climate change could have on our business and what Idaho Power is and should be doing to prepare for that change.
We plan to continue to refine and enhance that adaptation review going forward. Now I'd like to focus on another key stakeholder, our employees. Throughout this year, we have been focused on initiatives directed to our employees. Our employees are one of our foundational assets and our company's success is inextricably linked to the satisfaction, dedication and hard work of our employees. Some of the efforts we are taking in that regard are enhanced leadership training, competitive benchmark compensation, continued enhancement of in house business education series and a robust and regularly updated succession planning process.
We have a strong culture of integrity and respect at this company. One important component of our code of business conduct, which embodies that culture, is a focus on a respectful workplace. Together with other executives of company, I have participated in recent employee meetings throughout our service area to discuss this issue the issue of respect in the workplace. We work to promote a healthy culture of inclusion and to prevent inappropriate behaviors like those that have been so prevalent in the media of late. To that end, we have recently developed Idaho Power's diversity statement, which is on Idaho Power's website.
It was through a lot of collective thought and discussion that we developed this statement after consideration of who we are and the importance and benefits of diversity, inclusion and a sense of belonging for all of our employees. We have discussed this statement during our enterprise wide employee meetings this year and the response we have received so far from employees has been positive. We have also recognized the importance of diversity at the Board level. As of now, 30% of our Board members are women, each with very successful and prominent careers as executives. If you look through our proxy statement this year, you may have noted the graphic detailing the background of our directors, which are diverse and provide the Board a broad set of expertise required to oversee this company.
We were recently recognized as a 2020 Women on Boards winning company for the year 2017. Last but not least, I want to talk about how we advance the interest of you, our shareholders. Perhaps not surprisingly, in large part, I have already done It turns out the interests of our shareholders are in many ways directly linked with those of other stakeholders. We all want a healthy company, one that generates healthy returns for shareholders. That will only be achieved when the company is committed to its customers, committed to its community and committed to its employees, because those stakeholders in many ways support the company and its initiatives of success.
I could talk about this topic for quite some time, but instead what I want to do is highlight one exercise we recently undertook. Our internal strategy counsel and executive team reviewed and assessed broad societal trends and considered how over the long term, we as a company will adapt to those trends, whether they be climate change, regional markets, changing customer desires, technological advancement or something else. One theme was consistent for addressing every megatrend. We must remain focused on the satisfaction of our customers, which means we continue to provide reliable, fair priced energy in a responsible manner. That means we continue to focus on efficiency, environmental stewardship, safety, employees, employee engagement, fair and modern rate structures and implementation of advanced technology.
In doing so, we believe that our customers and our regulators will more readily support our company and its initiatives, which in turn will be to the benefit of our shareholders through the recovery of prudent investments and costs. If you have looked at our long term strategy, you know that we are committed to working for competitive total returns and long term value for shareholders, achievable through strong sustainable financial results and credit ratings. And we will continue to provide safe, affordable, reliable service to our customers using a responsible set of resources. We believe in our strategy and I thank you for your continued confidence in our company as we move in what I view as an exciting changing utility industry. While I am the one standing up here to deliver this message, I want to acknowledge the company's nearly 2,000 employees who work around the clock to bring fair price, reliable, responsible energy to our customers.
With that, we would like to hear your comments and respond to your questions. For those of you that have questions, we ask that you line up in the back we have a microphone set up. Please provide your name and then your question or comment. And in the interest of time and fairness to others, I ask that you please limit your comment or questions to 2 or 3 minutes. So I think they got the mic set up and the mic is open.
Good morning. My name is Lisa Hecht. And first I'd like to commend Idaho Power on its climate change adaptation plan that is true responsibility. Thank you. So I noted that Xcel Energy in Colorado recently put out bids and found that wind or solar plus storage were cheaper than coal and Pacificor's 2017 IRP preferred portfolio contains no new natural gas, but includes 2,700 Megawatts of new wind, 18 50 Megawatts of new solar, 18 77 Megawatts of incremental energy efficiency 2 68 Megawatts of Direct Load Control Resources.
And they found or said that coal, they were concerned that it could become a stranded asset. So my question is, what will Idaho Power do to ensure it is providing its customers with the latest renewable energy technologies at current market costs fairly valued and fairly priced?
Ms. Eck, first of all, thank you for being here. It's good to have you back with us again. And thanks for your continued interest in what we're doing. So the comments excuse me, I don't know what's happened to my voice today.
But the comments that you made, I am actually familiar with all those articles and comments that you made. So I appreciate you bringing those up. As it relates for us and what we are doing and we are just now in the process of gearing up for our 2019 IRP process. And what we do as part of that process, we first of all determine do we have a need for a resource. We take a look at the growth that we're seeing.
We take a look at the resources that we have. We match those up and find out do we have a need. And I think you're familiar with our IRP process. And it's through that process we will evaluate all available resources that are out there. And it does appear that there are breakthroughs that are taking place in the technology front that as we evaluate the next IRP, then those will come into play as we do that.
However, the thing I think we all have to recognize is one of the things that we are focused on, is ensuring that our current costs, which are low, which we appreciate being low and customers appreciate being low is that we don't want to put any pressure that's going to put upward pressure on that. And in some of those other jurisdictions their prices and costs are higher than where we are today. So they can't afford to bring on some of those other resources because their costs are higher already. In our case, we have a we're starting at a low spot, so it makes these other resources really hard to get into that queue. But we are going to look at those.
I mean, I think from a strictly energy perspective, solar is very cheap, relatively speaking. But solar by itself doesn't provide someday 20 fourseven resource. So you have to add all the other ancillary services with that and then look at that in combination and say how does that play with the rest of the resource portfolio. And we will do that. We will absolutely take a look at that as we go into our 2019 IRP process and also focusing on when that next need is because we are still long resourced today.
And as part of the IRP process out into 2023 or 2024, 2025, 2026 period is kind of when we look for our next resource. And so again, the 2019 IRP is going to be another good exercise for us to go through and see what the landscape looks like from a resource perspective. But I think all those resources that you acknowledge are happening. There's going to be pressure on natural gas. The question is going to be what happens to natural gas prices, right?
Some and depending on who you talk to, gas prices could be going up, they could be going down, they could stay flat. Those all have an impact on how we go about determining what that load and resource is going to look like going forward. But we will from a shareholders perspective, we will absolutely take a look at all of those resource opportunities that are out there as we look and as technology continues to change. I will the other just from a factoid perspective, the last thing I saw on storage suggests storage still needs to come down 50% more in price for it to become start becoming competitive. And again, we will continue to look at those things and see what's best for our customers and our shareholders.
So I but I appreciate that. Thank you very much.
Hello. My name is Paul Poorman and my wife and I are long term Idaho Power Shareholders and thank you for inviting us to the annual meeting. My question had to do with the Boardman, Oregon plant. I understand, as you said, in 2020, you're no longer going to be taking power from the coal producers there, the coal production there. Why do you need the Boardman to Hemingway transmission line if you're not going to be getting coal produced power from Boardman?
First of all, thank
you for being here and thank you for your question. That's a great question. Because some people ask, what do you build in this Line 2? And what you have to realize is where we are building this line to is basically an energy hub. We're not building it to the Boardman plant.
What we find is there's a hub there basically kind of called mid sea and there's a lot of energy available in that region. The problem is today when we need it, we can't bring that home. And so the reason by building this line there allows us access to that region where then we can access that energy and our current IRP suggests that that is a lower cost option for us. And the other thing you need to realize too I think is what happens is the Cascades is kind of a dividing line, The Cascades Mountain range is a dividing line. If you're west of the Cascades, you generally have been a winter peaking utility or their customers peak in the winter because it's more heat oriented.
If you're east of the Cascades, then you're at summer peaking. And so we are summer peaking. And so the fact that if you're west of the Cascades, they're generating for their peak in the winter. And so come summertime, they don't have as big a demand, but we do. And so there's energy available in that region as a result of that seasonal shift.
And so we believe that's an opportunity which is why we have determined the Boardman to Hemingway to be our lowest cost resource. And I think as I said in my comments, the thing about Boardman to Hemingway is if we didn't build that line, we'd have to look really hard at another whether it's renewables as Nitek indicated, we have to evaluate that. But also or do we build another facility? And like if we were to build something else, it has potential to be a carbon emitting resource. We say let's not have to do that.
Let's access what somebody is already generating. So that's the idea behind the Board of Hemingway line. That's why it continues to become out in our resource portfolio as the least cost option. Thank you. Well, thank you for your question.
Any other questions? Good morning. My name is Ken Rhodes. I'm a shareholder. Mr.
Anderson, I'd be interested if you could speak please to the area of cybersecurity. What are your concerns? And what are your measures and safeguards in that area? Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Thanks for your question. Thanks for a very, very timely topic. And so I it's something first of all, cyber impacts every all of us, right? And whether it's in our daily lives or it's in our professional lives, it impacts us all the time, whether it's from a simple phishing exercise, your only good is your weakest link.
And so we spend an incredible amount of time and effort around cybersecurity. We have a dedicated team that we have grown with the advent of cybersecurity that we are monitoring this 20 fourseven. We have a what I would say is a top notch cyber group that spends a lot of time. And as our Board gets updated on our cyber activities at every one of our Board meetings as to what's happening on that cyber front. But one of the things you think about is the grid, the thing that makes everything happen.
People would love to access. If you're a cyber criminal, you would really like to you want to mess with the country, how would you do that? You would go access the grid because you think about how reliant we are on energy and if you get a hold of the grid, you can impact that energy access, banking, transportation, you name it. That would have a significant impact. You wouldn't have to put any boots on the ground if you could go ahead and attack it through the cyber side, which is why we take this very seriously.
And we have I'm not sure how much I want to share with you because there's some of that that is somewhat sensitive. But I will rest assured as the industry group that we are part of, which is a lot of the investor owned utilities, we have a group, an ISAT group, which is basically an information security group that spends we glean information from everybody around us as to how we do things. We do things as simple as doing timely patches. So that means because if you don't timely patch, then the vulnerabilities pop up and boom, people have access to you. We have active phishing campaigns internally.
So to all of our employees are subject to phishing campaigns. If this thing was to go to the screen, you would see there would be a phishing thing up there, say be aware of phishing. We have our grid itself is really self contained. We actually reduce people to have access to the grid itself, so our energy management system. So there's a lot of things we do on the cyber side that I'm looking here, but I'm not sure how much they want me to go forward with that.
So all I can say is we spent a lot of quality time on cyber and both at the local level, but we also spend time at the national level. Department of Homeland Security, we're very engaged with those folks on what's happening. And I will tell you, I mean, this won't just maybe not give you any comfort, but the amount of attacks that we fend off every day are in 1,000. And they are coming from all across the globe. And we're not alone and that's because we are a great target, which is why we spend the quality time on the cyber side.
So and it comes from all parts of the globe. So I'm not sure I didn't want to go too deep on it. So thank you for the question, but it's a very, very important topic. Any other questions? So I'm going to wrap up this meeting.
It's something a little different this year. I'm going to invite we have 3 members of our Blackfoot line crew that are here today that I am going to invite up. Guys, why don't you come on up? So I'm going to share a story about these guys. They are just an awesome group.
We have Nate Geary, Vicki Thomas, Tanner Peabody, line crew in Blackfoot, Idaho on the eastern side of our service territory. And I'm going to read a little bit here because I want to make sure I get all the facts right. We have an award that we present from time to time called the Presidential Safety Award. You saw in the video where we made a couple of presentations in 2017. These gentlemen were awarded a Presidential Safety Award earlier this year and I want to kind of share their story with you.
So in this case, these guys were out working, they were up finishing some work and they had just completed their job when they were leaving the worksite when Tanner and Mickey noticed because I believe Nate must have been driving maybe, yes. They looked up and they saw a guy they saw something moving out in the field, sort of maybe somebody like waving their hand out in the field. I'm not sure how they noticed it, but somebody did. So they turned their vehicle around and then took across the field on foot and found an older gentleman lying on his back in extreme pain. He told them he had broken his hip, so he wasn't able to move, sitting there shivering.
This was in January, Eastern Idaho, really cold and not great weather. So the team split up like a good team would. Nate called 911. Tanner went over to the house to find the man's spouse and then Mickey stayed by the man's side. Once the emergency crews were on their way, Nathan then went and collected coats and sweatshirt from the back of the truck to cover the guy up and then held his hand.
And there's a really and Nate says, he says, I remember it was really cold and we gave him everything we had. But the gentleman said, he said, it was held in hand, he says, your hand is so warm. Told the crew he had been out there for a walk and was feeding his animals when he slipped on a patch of ice and fell. He used his pistol to signal for help, but no one heard him. He had gone undiscovered for more than an hour and said he was afraid his wife might not see him when she went off to work.
So the crew stayed and hung with him until the EMTs arrived. And then the gentleman went out and then recuperated. But I want to read a note from the gentleman's wife that he wrote to these guys and when we did this deal. It says, on behalf of my husband who unfortunately in this case was unable to be here at this meeting we were at, he's still unable to walk, myself and my children, we want to express our biggest thanks to these guardian angels, Nate Geary, Mickey Thomas and Tanner Peabody. You guys are truly amazing workers for spotting a normal abnormal activity.
You will be on our minds and in our hearts forever for choosing to back up your Idaho powered truck and drive down our lane to check out what you saw moving in the week, my husband. I seriously don't know how that moving black glove drove you back. My husband wanted you 3 to know how grateful he is that on that cold day, you all removed your jackets and placed them on him to keep him from freezing to death. We love you and are so glad you are being recognized for what you guys did. We are family now.
And so for me, when we heard this story, it was easy. It was really easy. And but what it says to me, this is who your Idaho employees are. These are the type of folks that they do. They just go do the right thing.
As Lisa Growe would say, they don't run away from trouble, they run to trouble and they run 2 things. And that's what these guys did. They absolutely didn't want to be up here today, and I can tell you that right now. We've coerced them to come on in because I really thought it's important for you, our owners, to hear a little bit about we hear we hear talk numbers all the time, but this is the people part of what we do. This is really what it's all about, about doing the right thing at the right time.
And so I would like to give these guys another big round of applause for the work that they did. So I'm going to have these guys hang up for a while I just wrap this up. But I just wanted to I thought this would be a nice way to end this meeting to have all of you kind of see it is about we have. We do not electricity, but we also help out a lot of people. So again, thank you all for your interest in the company.
Thank you for your continued support. And with that, we will adjourn the meeting. Thanks. Thank you very much.