EVERETT, JUNE 15: A lawsuit involving salmon and Eastern Washington hydro-electric dams will reduce electricity capacity available to Snohomish Public Utility District but Senior Manager for Power Supply, Garrison Marr, tells EverettPost.com “we feel confident we are in a good position” during the reduction.
A federal court ruling, which went into effect last month, requires the Bonneville Power Administration to spill more water over the dams and less water into the turbines that generate electrical power. BPA markets power from 14 hydro-electric dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers in Washington–and a total of 31 dams across the Pacific Northwest.
The lawsuit leading to the federal court ruling, known as “the spill injunction”, according to Marr, was filed by the State of Oregon and conservation groups to benefit salmon migration on the rivers. The extra water spill began last month in conjunction with salmon returning for spawning season. Spilling more water, according to the lawsuit, is designed to keep the salmon swimming beyond the barrier of the dam to reach the spawning areas upstream and boost salmon population.
The spill injunction has potential repercussions for Snohomish PUD because 90% of the utility’s electricity supply comes from BPA. The water diverted from the hydro-electric dams to benefit salmon is estimated to reduce BPA’s power generation by 1000 mega-watts in August and 500 mega-watts in September, according to Kurt Miller, CEO and executive director of the Northwest Public Power Association. Those power reductions eventually erode the electrical capacity for Snohomish PUD and roughly 100 other Northwest customer-owned utilities who receive their power from the dams.
Marr explains the surge demand implications of the spill injunction for PUD customers, saying, “the biggest potential impact to Snohomish PUD is largely going to be what the cost of the power from BPA is to Snohomish PUD. That’s because Bonneville Power Administration provides us the power at their cost which is generally low cost, but the spill injunction could create some net costs that materialize for us.”
Here’s how that could play out, according to Marr, “And the way that would occur is that the federal system, it produces some surplus power in some periods of (low demand) time even beyond what Bonneville needs to provide to the utilities that have contracts with BPA. And when it has surplus, it’s able to sell the surplus into the wholesale electricity market and that provides revenue to Bonneville which allows Bonneville to keep costs lower to the utilities it contracts with.”
And that brings up the question about power capacity when demand spikes–usually during exceptionally hot or cold weather–like the North Sound has experienced the last few days with temperatures pushing 90 degrees.
Marr replies, “When Bonneville needs a little bit more power (for the grid), it goes to that same wholesale electricity market, in some periods of (high demand) time, and it needs to purchase additional power from that market. So what the spill injunction is doing, is in some circumstances, creating less surplus for Bonneville to sell and potentially creating the need for buying back power during some periods and Bonneville is working through (that) right now to establish what those costs might be and how that might show up in bills to utility customers like Snohomish PUD as the spill injunction plays out.”
In the coming months, BPA will be working with utilities to determine how to bill the costs associated with the court’s order and how those costs will be passed on to customers. Marr says that should be determined by October.
According to the Public Power Council, a group representing utilities like Snohomish PUD, the federal court order allows for adjustments to the spill injunction “necessary for energy emergencies, human safety, or infrastructure integrity may be made, provided they are limited in scope and duration and must be reported.”
Marr advises, “We take reliability seriously and are always concerned about development that could increase risk for our customers, but we also feel confident we are in a good position.” That’s because, Marr says, “What’s happening across the region doesn’t look the same for every utility. Snohomish PUD is in a much stronger position than we were a year ago in terms of resource adequacy, and we feel confident in our ability to serve our customers.”
With hot weather spiking right now and the court order reducing hydro-power generation for the next few months, Marr acknowledges the concern about power interruptions or brown-outs for customers and adds, “In my 11 years at the PUD, this has not been an issue.”
According to Central Lincoln PUD in Oregon, approximately 25% of BPA’s power costs (about $700 million annually) go toward fish and wildlife programs, including fish passage, habitat restoration, and related efforts. These costs are paid by customers through their electric bills.