(PORTLAND, OR) – The Public Power Council stated its opposition to a proposal in the Administration’s Budget released today that would divest the electricity transmission system of the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA). BPA is a power marketing agency created to sell and deliver electricity from the federal Columbia River power system “at cost” to citizens of the Northwest. It operates 15,000 miles of transmission lines, all of the costs of which are paid for through the rates charged to its customers.
“We’ll want the details, but the effect appears to be a transfer of value from the people of the Northwest to the U.S. Treasury,” said PPC Executive Director, Scott Corwin. “Electricity consumers in the West have paid to construct and maintain a system that would be sold off to fund the federal government.”
PPC staff will be analyzing specifics of the proposal if and when they become available. Today’s budget summary documents show almost $5 billion attributed to divesting the BPA transmission assets between 2018 and 2027, with almost $1.8 billion of that amount collected in fiscal year 2019.
“Electric utilities here are already working with BPA toward evolution and modernization of the transmission system,” Corwin said. “These efforts are best handled in-region where the expertise lies with the parties who pay for the system.”
At first look, the proposal raises several potential concerns including: (1) loss of regional control and value; (2) risk of increased costs to consumers; (3) potential for remote areas of the system to be neglected, harming rural communities; and, (4) impacts to reliability of what is currently a complex and integrated system.
