BPA wants to give utilities power over what energy they use

At the halfway point between the West Coast energy crisis of 2001 and the next major electricity contract renewal year of 2011, a federal power marketing agency is proposing a policy change that could affect rates in the Pacific Northwest for generations and become a national model for energy development.

Northwest hydropower is one of the cheapest energy resources in the nation — about half the current market rate for electricity. The Bonneville Power Administration — which sells power in all of Washington, Oregon and Idaho and parts of California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming and Montana — announced this summer it wants to change the way it charges utilities for its wholesale power, to keep rates low.

The BPA proposes to make hydropower a separate resource while charging utilities a different rate for any additional power they want from the federal agency. Currently, utilities pay a blended rate that adds in the cost of developing resources or buying additional power to meet load growth.

By WILLIAM MCCALL
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Full Story: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/286193_bpa23.html