Avista

The National Weather Service says high winds Monday evening downed power lines and trees.

Forecasters say winds blew in the 45-to-60 mile-an-hour range with a peak gust of 72 miles per hour at Athol, north of Coeur d'Alene. The Coeur d'Alene airport recorded a peak gust of 61 mph.

Power outages caused by the record-breaking heat wave could continue for the rest of the week, as high electric use and hot conditions strain the Inland Northwest’s power grid.

Spokane has broken its all-time record high temperature. At 4 pm the National Weather Service reported the temperature at its Spokane International Airport facility had reached 109.

UPDATED Mon. 10:30 am: Avista has crews all over the region, fixing power outages. It reports about 1,000 hundred people still without power in the Spokane and Kootenai County.

As of Monday, 3/29 at 1:30 pm

Avista:  1,200 customers
Kootenai Electric Cooperative: 220 customers 

Strong winds blew dust through eastern Washington Sunday, causing the closure of Interstate 90 between Ritzville and Moses Lake from Sunday afternoon until about 9:30 pm.

More than 17,000 people had lost power around the region by Sunday night.

Some residents across the greater Spokane region could lose power late this afternoon and tonight as strong winds hit the area.

The National Weather Service issued an advisory Monday warning winds could be around 20 to 30 miles per hour with gusts as high as 50 miles per an hour. The warning is in effect for the area ranging from Spokane to Moses Lake and South to Walla Walla.

Crews from the region's utilities are back at it this morning [Thursday], working to restore power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses in eastern Washington and northern Idaho.

Avista says Wednesday’s windstorm caused at least 1,600 outages in its service territory, knocking out electricity to about 70,000 customers. As of this morning, the utility says more than 45,000 are still not connected.

Utility crews around the Inland Northwest worked overnight to restore power to tens of thousands of customers after heavy snow fell around the region.

More than 5,000 Avista customers remained without electricity on Saturday morning in the Spokane area, other parts of northeastern Washington and northern Idaho. Inland Power reported about 1,000 homes without power, mostly in Spokane County. Northern Lights was working only a handful of outages affecting a few dozen customers.

 The partners involved in creating the new Catalyst building just east of downtown Spokane celebrated a virtual grand opening ceremony today [Thursday].

The building will anchor what is now called the South Landing Eco-District neighborhood, near the southern terminus of the Gateway Bridge in the University District. It will soon house several Eastern Washington University programs.

The Washington Senate has approved a bill that its supporters call the 100% clean electricity bill.

The 29-to-20 vote on Monday includes changes made to the bill by the House of Representatives.

It would require utilities to eliminate coal from their electrical generating portfolios by 2025. It also sets 2045 as the deadline by which all of their generation must use non-carbon emitting and renewable resources.

Avista says it will begin installing new gas and electric meters at homes and businesses throughout its service area next week.

Heather Rosentrater, the vice president for energy delivery at Avista, says the so-called “smart meters” will allow the utility to more quickly and accurately measure how its customers use energy.

Avista and Hydro One have announced they’re terminating their agreement to merge. This comes after a series of regulatory rulings that went against the proposed acquisition.

Washington utility regulators have dealt another blow to Avista’s proposed merger with Hydro One, the Canadian electrical transmission and distribution utility.

The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission issued a statement Tuesday morning that said it would take no action on the two companies’ request that the agency reconsider its earlier ruling.

The Idaho Public Utilities Commission has denied a request by Avista to be acquired by the Canadian transmission company Hydro One.

The order released today [Thursday] comes a month after Washington’s Utilities and Transportation Commission ruled against the acquisition.

UPDATED with a comment from Avista.

Washington utility regulators say the Canadian utility Hydro One may not acquire the Spokane-based utility Avista. In a statement issued Wednesday afternoon, the Utilities and Transportation Commission said "the proposed merger does not serve the public interest."