Bonneville Power Administration

The Trump administration has spent the past year course correcting its policies on energy storage, making it a top priority in its efforts to lower energy costs as the build-out of data centers and the artificial intelligence industry strains the nation's aging power grid, according to a senior Department of Energy official.

Arizona Utilities Day Ahead Market Choices Face Fresh Scrutiny An Arizona regulator has asked utilities in the state for updated analysis on their choice of day-ahead market, including the impact of Bonneville Power Administration potentially switching from SPP's markets, plus to KISO's extended day-ahead market.

Experts debate restructuring versus vertical integration at AAA.

The return of major load growth has brought back basic debates about how to economically regulate the power industry, and the American Enterprise Institute gathered a group of experts to discuss the topic.

And we'll start there.

Utilities that get electricity from the Bonneville Power Administration, like Seattle City Light, say a pending rate increase will likely trickle down to customers.

KLCC's Zach Ziegler reports.

The BPA says the hike is due to a court order requiring it to spill more water over the tops of some dams.

My dad was an engineer.

He worked for Bonneville Power.

And I had a younger brother.

Dad wanted us to work during the summers.

If you're not familiar with the Northwest, it's called Portland General Electric.

We're what is called in the Northwest a full requirements customer of the Bonneville Power Administration.

Or in other words, we have no generation.

We purchase all of our power from BPA.

So it's a little complicated.

Different with us since we are predominantly hydro already.

90 over 90% of our generation from the Bonneville Power Administration is hydro already.

But that remaining portion, 5%, has to come from renewable power, yes.

It's not in power, Chip.

So here I would recommend the court look at industrial customers, which was a decision by this court where Bonneville Power made a record of decision deciding to change its rate request to FERC.

That was much more formalized than the ambiguous thing being challenged here.

FERC was actually not allowed to reconsider the details of what Bonneville Power asked for in that process.

FERC had its own process.

But still, the court recognized that Bonneville Power's submission was not a final agency action.

I mean, that was under the Bonneville Power-specific review process, but the court said, this is like final agency action.

This is a finality inquiry.

This is the same entity that, on July 1, 1983, defaulted on $2.2 billion of bonds issued to finance partial construction of the now-abandoned Projects 4 and 5 While there are material differences in the obligors, promises, and properties underlying the two categories of bonds, the problems of projects 4 and 5 have cast a major cloud over projects 1, 2, and 3 and might possibly cause serious problems for the latter issues.

In addition, there have been a multitude of problems related directly to Projects 1, 2, and 3 that could weaken or destroy an otherwise strong credit position arising from guarantees by Bonneville Power Administration.

Despite these important negatives, Charlie and I judged the risks at the time we purchased the bonds and at the prices Berkshire paid, much lower than present prices, to be considerably more than compensated for by prospects of profit.

As you know, we buy marketable stocks for our insurance companies based upon the criteria we would apply in the purchase of an entire business.

Summer 2010.

Below normal precipitation and stream flows in the Columbia River Basin resulted in insufficient hydropower generation to fulfill load obligations for the Bonneville Power Administration.

As a result, BPA experienced a net loss of $233 million, or 10%, from the prior year.

2010 The Arizona Corporation Commission ruled that Hualapai Valley Solar, LLC, would have to use dry cooling or treated wastewater rather than groundwater as a condition of its Certificate of Environmental Compatibility for a proposed 340 megawatt solar power plant in Mojave County, Arizona due to concerns about the effects of the power plant on water availability from the Hualapai Valley Aquifer.