PR 22 08
BONNEVILLE POWER ADMINISTRATION
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
CONTACT: Doug Johnson, BPA, (503) 230-5840
BPA appoints Larry Bekkedahl as Transmission Services
vice president, Engineering and Technical Services
PORTLAND, Ore. - Larry N. Bekkedahl will join the Bonneville Power Administration Thursday, April 3, as the agency's Transmission Services vice president of Engineering and Technical Services. Mr. Bekkedahl has 26-years of experience working on Northwest electric power operations and issues, most recently at Clark Public Utilities where he served as director of Engineering and Technical Services for the company.
In making this announcement today, BPA's Senior Vice President for Transmission Services Vickie VanZandt said she was excited about the opportunity to add a senior executive of Bekkedahl's experience and abilities to the Transmission Services management team.
"Larry has spent his entire career with electric utilities in the Northwest," VanZandt said. "He has worked in positions at every level with both small and large utilities in the region, which will give him the experience and perspective necessary to help BPA continue to provide adequate, reliable and safe transmission services to the region."
Bekkedahl started his career at the Montana Power Company in 1981 as an engineering assistant. In 1984, he moved to PacifiCorp where he assumed progressive levels of responsibility in field operations, including an operations director assignment for a region including Portland, Hood River and Astoria, Oregon. He also initiated the first hydro resource development project in the Philippines for the utility. He later spent a year as PacifiCorp's director of Transmission, Distribution and Telecommunications Planning. In 2001, he joined Clark Public Utilities, where he managed system reliability and served as director of Engineering and Technical Services for approximately seven years.
Bekkedahl holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electric engineering from Montana State University and has served in exchange positions with utilities in Japan, Southeast Asia and Bangladesh. He is active in civic affairs, serving on the local Rotary and the Southwest Washington Red Cross Boards.
BPA's Transmission Services vice president, Engineering and Technical Services is one of five vice president positions in Transmission Services The position manages Transmission Services' capital construction program - over $300 million in FY08 and expected to be significantly larger in the next few years. Six branch managers report to the vice president of Engineering and Technical Services. They supervise BPA's land acquisitions and agreements; transmission line, substation and control and communication engineering; construction project management; as well as the agency's commissioning and testing activities.
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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