PR 103 06      

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MONDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2006

CONTACT: Scott Simms, BPA (503) 230-3520

PORTLAND, Ore. – The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) announces it intends to spend around $1 million to address how to generate electricity from the motion of the ocean and how to help tame the intermittent nature of wind power entering the region’s electricity grid.

BPA is issuing a formal request for proposals (RFP) to the energy industry for advancement of technology that can help manage intermittent renewable power resources – such as wind energy – into the region’s grid, as well as advance research on ocean wave and in-stream tidal generation technologies. While BPA estimates that about $1 million will be made available in fiscal year 2007 through this RFP, there is potential for continued funding into future years.

 “The existing federal power system uses 31 dams and one nuclear power plant, along with some wind power, to generate emission-free, non-fossil-fuel based electricity for the Northwest,” BPA Deputy Administrator Steve Hickok said. “Adding renewable wave energy to the mix, with no associated fossil fuel use or emissions, certainly would fit well with our federal power supply portfolio and could hold promise as our region’s electricity needs continue to grow.”

The renewable integration portion of the RFP will help support recommendations expected in January from a wind integration study group made up of leaders from the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, utilities, renewable power developers and BPA. That group is expected to release a Wind Integration Action Plan setting out strategies to address the issues impacting the electricity grid.

Hickok said the opportunity is there for ocean wave and tidal generation technology to garner the same level of popularity and growth that wind power has experienced in recent years.

Wind power, a proven source of clean and renewable electricity, currently supplies about 3 percent of the region’s electricity. Since January 2005, facilities supplying more than 970 megawatts (MW) of wind power have been completed or are under construction in the Northwest and construction of another 660 MW or more is expected within the next two years. Wind project developers have requested integration services with the transmission grid for facilities to add more than 3,000 additional MW of wind power in the region over the next several years. 

The Council anticipates that renewable resources, particularly wind power, will play a major role in meeting the region’s future demand for electricity. The Council’s Fifth Northwest Power Plan, which went into effect in December 2004, calls for meeting future demand for power with a mixture of energy conservation and new power plants, with a large emphasis on wind power. The plan calls for achieving 700 average megawatts (aMW) of new energy conservation between 2005 and 2009, and up to 6,000 MW of new wind power over the 20-year planning period. One aMW is 1,000 kilowatts of electricity delivered continuously for a period of one year. One average megawatt (aMW) will power about 585 Northwest homes for a year.

Project funding and RFP details

BPA’s 2007 Renewable Energy Request for Proposals is based on a BPA Renewable Energy Technology Roadmap that was developed earlier this year. The funding to support the Renewable Energy RFP comes from BPA’s sales of Environmentally Preferred Power (EPP) and Renewable Energy Certificates (REC) to utility customers and power marketers. These sales also generate revenues that are allocated directly to the Bonneville Environmental Foundation.

For Fiscal Year 2007, BPA has EPP and REC contracts in place that will support more than $2.5 million of BPA program expenditures in renewable research, development and demonstration. The RFP is the first use of the FY 2007 funds that BPA has announced to date. Through the RFP, BPA will fund up to 65 percent of a selected proposal's cost, but not more than $500,000 on a single project. To learn more about BPA’s Renewable Energy Technology Roadmap and the Renewable Energy RFP, please visit our Web site at: http://www.bpa.gov/corporate/business/innovation

Background on the intermittent nature of wind power as it relates to the region’s grid

The issue of renewable power integration is critical because wind power is the region’s fastest-growing renewable power source. Production from wind power sources can vary widely in a given period due to the intermittent nature of the resource, and periods of strong production do not always match up with periods of peak consumption by electricity customers. Adding too much of a variable resource to the baseload power supply coming from hydroelectric facilities and power plants fired by coal and natural gas throughout the Pacific Northwest could reduce the overall reliability of the region’s system.

BPA is a not-for-profit federal agency that markets about 40 percent of the electricity consumed in the Pacific Northwest.  The power is produced at 31 federal dams in the Northwest and one nuclear plant, and is sold to over 140 Northwest utilities.  BPA operates a high-voltage transmission grid, comprising more than 15,000 miles of lines and associated substations in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana.