Bonneville Power Administration (2020 Presidential transition)

Book 3 - Organization Overview
Entire 2020 DOE Transition book As of October 2020

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Seal of DOE, Parent Organization

The Bonneville Power Administration (Bonneville) supports the Department of Energy ’s (DOE) Strategic Plan Objective 4: “Improve electric grid reliability and resilience” of Goal 1, Promote American Energy Dominance.

With Bonneville’s responsibility to serve the majority of the Northwest region’s high voltage needs, Bonneville’s asset management strategy for transmission covers nine primary asset programs including alternating current substations, direct current substations, control centers, power system control, system telecommunications, system protection control, rights-of-way, wood pole lines, and steel lines. The assets within these programs deliver electric power to more than 12 million people.

In its 2018–2023 Strategic Plan, Bonneville adopted a more flexible, scalable, economical, and operationally efficient approach to managing its transmission system. To ensure correctly sized asset investments, Bonneville has and continues to increase its reliance on advanced technology, robust regional planning, industry standard commercial practices, and coordinated system operations. Bonneville is committed to taking a forward-looking approach with its investment decisions and is improving its capital investment program through the systematic incorporation of criticality, health, and risk into investment prioritization.

Mission Statement

As a public service organization, Bonneville Power Administration ’s mission is to create and deliver the best value for our customers and constituents as we act in concert with others to assure the Pacific Northwest:

An adequate, efficient, economical and reliable power supply.
A transmission system that is adequate to the task of integrating and transmitting power from Federal and non-federal generating units, providing service to Bonneville’s customers, providing interregional interconnections, and maintaining electrical reliability and stability.
Mitigation of the impacts on fish and wildlife from the Federally owned hydroelectric projects from which Bonneville markets power.
Bonneville is committed to cost-based rates, and public and regional preference in its marketing of power. Bonneville sets its rates as low as possible, consistent with sound business principles and the full recovery of all of its costs, including timely repayment of the Federal investment in the system

Budget

BPA is self-financing and does not receive annual appropriations.

Fiscal Year	Budget
FY 2019 enacted	$4,410,452
FY 2020 enacted	$4,133,669
FY 2021 request	$4,245,831

Human Resources

FY 2020 authorized full-time equivalents (FTEs): 3,000

History

The Bonneville Project Act of 1937 provides the statutory basis for Bonneville’s power marketing responsibilities and authorities. In 1974, the passage of the Federal Columbia River Transmission System Act (Transmission Act) applied provisions of the Government Corporation Control Act (31 U.S.C. §§ 9101-9110) to Bonneville. The Transmission Act provides Bonneville with “self-financing” authority; establishes the Bonneville Fund (a permanent, indefinite appropriation) allowing Bonneville to use its revenues from electric power and transmission ratepayers to fund all programs without further appropriation; and authorizes Bonneville to sell bonds to the U.S. Treasury. As of the end of FY 2019, Bonneville has a revolving U.S. Treasury borrowing authority of $7.7 billion, of which approximately $2.4 billion remains available to be drawn.

The 1980 enactment of the Pacific Northwest Electric Power Planning and Conservation Act (Northwest Power Act) expanded Bonneville’s authorities, obligations, and responsibilities. The purposes of the act include the following: to encourage electric energy conservation to meet regional electric power loads placed on Bonneville; to develop renewable energy resources within the Pacific Northwest; to assure the Northwest an adequate, efficient, economical, and reliable power supply; to promote regional participation and planning; and to protect, mitigate, and enhance the fish and wildlife of the Columbia River and its tributaries. The Northwest Power Act also established a revised statutory framework for Bonneville’s administrative rate- setting process and established judicial review of Bonneville’s final actions in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Functions

Bonneville provides electric power services and transmission services and acquires energy efficiency throughout the Pacific Northwest. Bonneville serves a 300,000 square mile area including Oregon, Washington, Idaho, western Montana, small parts of eastern Montana, California, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming, totaling about 14 million people. Bonneville markets the electric power produced from 31 federal hydro projects in the Pacific Northwest owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation. In addition, Bonneville acquires power from non-federal generating resources, including the Columbia Generating Station (CGS), a nuclear power plant. Bonneville uses the power from its non-federal purchases and the Federal projects, collectively the Federal Columbia River Power System (FCRPS), primarily to meet the Administrator’s long term firm power sales contract obligations. Bonneville currently maintains and operates 15,197 circuit miles of transmission lines, 262 substations, and associated power system control and communications facilities over which this electric power is delivered. Bonneville also supports the protection and enhancement of fish and wildlife and promotes conservation and energy efficiency as part of its efforts to preserve and balance the economic and environmental benefits of the FCRPS.

Recent Organization Accomplishments

Cost Management

In September 2020, Bonneville completed its public process to review proposed program funding levels before filing its initial rates proposals for power and transmission services in Fiscal Years 2022 and 2023. In its Integrated Program Review, Bonneville concluded it will hold its program funding levels for power services below the rate of inflation, a key part of its strategic plan.

COVID-19 Response

Beginning in March 2020, Bonneville responded to the expanding COVID-19 pandemic by instructing all non-mission critical operating personal to telework for an indefinite period of time. Bonneville suspended transmission construction projects and limited field operations to critical work. As local health directives permitted, Bonneville resumed construction and maintenance activities. In June 2020, Bonneville completed an expedited rate proceeding to suspend its Financial Reserve Policy surcharge to provide its public power preference customers about $3 million per month of rate relief for the remainder of FY 2020, and $30 million for FY 2021

Wildfire Mitigation

Wildfires pose a threat for transmission providers in the western United States. In 2020, Bonneville completed a Wildfire Mitigation Plan to prevent Bonneville transmission lines and other assets from sparking wildfires, and to protect Bonneville lines and assets from the threat of wildfires. During the 2020 fire season, Bonneville deployed an incident management team to coordinate its response to wildfires.

Columbia River System Operations Review (CRSO)

In September 2020, Bonneville and its partner Federal agencies completed the four-year CRSO. The CRSO produced an environmental impact statement covering the operations of the Federal Columbia River Power System and the associated effects on fish, wildlife, and cultural resources. The CRSO included extensive public involvement and engagement with Pacific Northwest states and tribal governments

Grid Modernization

Bonneville continues a cross- agency grid modernization initiative. Bonneville’s strategic objective is to modernize Federal power and transmission systems and their supporting technology. Grid modernization involves improving transmission and generation system visibility and controls and increasing the electricity market skills of Bonneville employees. Part of the grid modernization scope is Bonneville’s evaluation of joining the Western Energy Imbalance Market (EIM) and enabling Federal and non-federal resources in its service area to access that market. Bonneville expects that joining the EIM will optimize the day- to-day operation of the power system and leverage hydropower in a market increasingly driven by intermittent renewable resources.

Integrated Regional Transmission Planning

In 2020, Bonneville began participation in the newly formed NorthernGrid regional planning organization under FERC Order 1000. Order 1000 requires transmission-owning utilities to participate in regional planning organizations to guide transmission resource development and optimize grid operations. In the Pacific Northwest, regional planning had been divided under two planning organizations. Bonneville’s 2018–2023 Strategic Direction included the objective of pursuing a single entity to combine planning efforts and reduce duplication. The regional parties responding to this initiative included utilities subject to FERC jurisdiction and non-jurisdictional entities. The parties developed the functional structure of NorthernGrid and completed a funding agreement in 2019. The parties selected a project coordinator and began implementation in 2020.

Leadership Challenges

None.

Critical Events and Action Items

The Columbia River Treaty

The U.S. Government reached consensus on a high-level position for negotiations of the post-2024 future of the Columbia River Treaty in June 2015 and received the authorization to negotiate with Canada on the Columbia River Treaty in October 2016. Government Affairs Canada notified the U.S. State Department (DOS) in December 2017 of Canada’s mandate to negotiate the Columbia River Treaty with the United States. Negotiations began in spring 2018 and continue to date. Both the DOS and Canadian negotiators have discussed shared objectives and exchanged information on flood risk management, hydropower, and ecosystem considerations

Regional Electric System Reliability

Recent regional forecasts have shown that the Pacific Northwest as a whole is nearing periods of times of the year when regional power supplies may not be adequate to meet demand. In early 2021, Bonneville will continue to work with other regional utilities through the Northwest Power Pool on an initiative to develop a voluntary but enforceable program to ensure that the region maintains a balance of supplies and demand in a very high percentage of likely conditions.

Power and Transmission Rates

In November 2020, Bonneville will file a Federal Register Notice for its initial proposal for power and transmission service rates for Fiscal Years 2022 and 2023. During the first part of 2021, Bonneville will conduct formal rate proceedings with rate case parties, leading to the Administrator’s Record of Decision for final rates to be in effect on October 1, 2021.