PR 34 08
BONNEVILLE POWER ADMINISTRATION
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FRIDAY, MAY 9, 2008
CONTACT: Doug Johnson (503) 230-5840
BPA announces more flexible banking arrangement with U.S. Treasury
Portland, Ore. - The Bonneville Power Administration will now have quicker and more flexible access to funding for upgrades to transmission infrastructure and other projects consistent with provisions of the Northwest Power Act and Columbia River Transmission Act. The new arrangement is the result of collaboration with the U.S. Treasury to establish a more formal banking arrangement like those the Treasury has with other federal agencies.
"We've taken what was an outdated and laborious process and improved it," said David Armstrong, BPA chief financial officer. "This new arrangement will help us gain access to critical funding more quickly, which in turn, will help enhance the reliability of the BPA system."
Until now, the process BPA used to obtain funds from the U.S. Treasury took approximately one month. Now, BPA can obtain funds to work on projects consistent with the provisions of the Northwest Power Act and Columbia River Transmission Act in as little as three days.
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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