The Northwest Power Pool

The Northwest Power Pool is a corporation based in Portland that helps its members, which are electric utilities that own generating plants and sell power throughout the Northwest and Western Canada, achieve the maximum benefits from coordinating the operations of their power plants.

The Power Pool is a voluntary organization that includes electric generating utilities in the Pacific Northwest, British Columbia, and Alberta – the largest high-voltage transmission sub-area of the Western Electricity Coordinating Council. The Power Pool has a significant impact on power planning in the Northwest. Among other things, it provides the critical reservoir elevation limits (rule curves) for U.S. dams and sets contingency reserve power requirements for utilities within its geographic area.