New BPA transmission product helps customers move power, including wind energy
Conditional Firm fills in as customers wait for new infrastructure

Portland, Ore. -  The Bonneville Power Administration has found a way to help its customers transfer power across its transmission system while they wait for additional lines to be built.  In particular, the innovation is expected to benefit generators looking to deliver energy from wind and other renewable resources. The new product, called conditional firm transmission, allows BPA to provide long-term transmission that can be curtailed under certain conditions.

“We’re always looking for innovative ways to meet the needs of our customers,” said Cathy Ehli, vice president of BPA Transmission Marketing and Sales.  “This product uncovers unused transmission inventory that allows customers to make long-term transactions and allows BPA to protect system reliability.”

Customers that have requested firm transmission on BPA’s transmission network for service beginning in the next three years may be eligible for conditional firm offers.  BPA expects to make approximately 27 offers this year for about 1,300 megawatts of service for requests with start dates over the next three years.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s recent innovations provided BPA with the opportunity to develop its conditional firm transmission product.  Under conditional firm agreements, BPA agrees to provide long-term transmission service.  Customers agree to a designated number of hours each year that BPA can curtail service when certain conditions exist that would otherwise threaten reliable system operation.  As BPA constructs additional high-voltage transmission lines, it will be able to convert these customers taking conditional firm service to long-term firm transmission.  Many of the conditional firm transmission service offers will go to wind customers.  This product will help expedite transmission of renewable energy on BPA’s transmission network while BPA builds additional transmission lines.

“BPA is committed to keeping up with the rapid development of wind and other renewable energy in the Northwest,” said Ehli.  “Conditional firm transmission service will allow wind developers to get their energy to their customers much sooner than could otherwise be accommodated.” 

BPA is a not-for-profit federal electric utility that operates a high-voltage transmission grid comprising more than 15,000 miles of lines and associated substations in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana.  It also markets more than a third of the electricity consumed in the Pacific Northwest. The power is produced at 31 federal dams owned and operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation and one nuclear plant in the Northwest and is sold to more than 140 Northwest utilities.  BPA purchases power from seven wind projects and has more than 2,000 megawatts of wind interconnected to its transmission system.

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