PR 46 07
BONNEVILLE POWER ADMINISTRATION
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, December 03, 2007
CONTACT: Doug Johnson, BPA, 503-713-7658 cell
Katie Pruder, BPA (503) 230-3111
BPA media line, 503-230-5131
BPA reports tough conditions continue to impact restoration efforts
PORTLAND, Ore. -Although winds have died down, tonight Bonneville Power Administration reports that other weather factors, such as flooding, mudslides and downed trees, continue to affect its ability to repair line outages.
Outages on the BPA system continue to impact service from west of Port Angeles to north of Olympia, including the Shelton area. Power remains out in the Aberdeen area, Astoria and along the Long Beach Peninsula. Lack of visibility due to nightfall has created safety hazards so BPA crews have suspended work in the Aberdeen and Long Beach areas until daybreak. Power is expected to be restored to the Shelton area shortly.
Thanks to efforts by the Clallam County Public Utility District, BPA efforts to restore power to the Sappho area, which is on the northwestern tip of the Olympic Peninsula, will be completed more quickly than initially projected. Clallam County PUD crews worked to remove a downed tree that was affecting BPA's line in the area, but other problems with the line continue to disrupt power delivery to the area.
As of 5 p.m. today, BPA reported that it has restored service on its high-voltage transmission lines into the Tillamook area, but it is important to note that delivery of power is contingent upon each individual utility's ability to deliver the power transmitted by BPA. Power into Astoria continues to be impacted by downed transmission poles, flooding and nightfall. BPA and Pacific Power crews are working to restore service into Astoria and estimate that service could be restored as early as tomorrow evening.
"We are working hard to restore electricity to those areas that are still without power," said Robin Furrer, BPA transmission field services vice president. "The credit for what we were able to accomplish today, despite the elements, belongs to both BPA crews and other field utility crews who worked safely together to restore power."
BPA will prioritize the remaining work to be done based on system reliability and those areas where power has not been restored.
Utilities that continue to be affected by BPA outages include: West Oregon Electric Cooperative, Grays Harbor County Public Utility District, Pacific Power, Clallam County PUD, Portland General Electric, Pacific County PUD and Lewis County PUD at Pe Ell.
BPA is a not-for-profit federal electric utility that markets more than a third of the electricity consumed in the Pacific Northwest. The power is produced at 31 federal dams and one nuclear plant in the Northwest and is sold to more than 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.
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