Customer growth for the third quarter of the year for Idaho Power is off last year's pace, but corporate officials say it remains within the growth projections of the company’s 20-year Energy Plan for the Future. That plan, also known as the 2006 Integrated Resource Plan, calls for growth of approximately 9,500 customers per year over the next two decades.

At the end of September the company had gained 7,054 customers of all types in its southern Idaho and eastern Oregon service area — down from 10,983 added at the end of the second quarter last year.

Overall the Boise-based utility had a total of 479,353 accounts of all types, including residential, commercial and irrigation, on its books at the end of September.

Source: Idaho Business Review