Northwest should keep control of its power grid

The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) has a choice to make that could forever affect the way Northwest residents get their electricity.

BPA – the federal agency that owns and operates 75 percent of the Northwest’s high-voltage transmission lines – is considering two proposals intended to improve the region’s power grid. One proposal, known as the Transmission Improvements Group (TIG) plan, relies on existing utilities, can make changes quickly, and keeps control of the Northwest’s transmission system in the Northwest where it belongs.  The other option, Grid West, creates a new entity that may take longer to implement and shifts ultimate control of the region’s power grid to federal regulators.

There’s no doubt improvements are desirable. Our transmission lines – which carry electricity from where it’s generated to where utilities distribute it to customers – will need to accommodate new pressures.  As more homes are built and businesses grow, and as more generation is built in the region, our transmission lines must carry more energy from and to more places.

When a group of transmission users and providers formed TIG, they wanted to identify concrete, low-cost solutions to a variety of transmission challenges that can be implemented relatively soon.  Released Aug. 2, the TIG plan addresses important issues such as reliability and security, access to the grid, planning and expansion of the transmission system, and market monitoring.

A primary goal of TIG’s comprehensive proposal is to avoid creating new institutions that would unnecessarily turn regional control of the grid over to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Experiences elsewhere in the nation have shown that new regional transmission organizations (RTOs) take longer to implement. Steep learning curves and new processes cause work to slow down, defeating the purpose of creating such organizations in the first place.

The rest of the country has learned the hard way that new organizations take on lives of their own, growing to serve too many masters – and not necessarily the public interest – and letting their budgets get out of control.

Meanwhile, the Northwest, under its existing structure, has outperformed the rest of the country in getting transmission lines completed.  In 2004, the Northwest completed twice as many circuit miles as any region in the country. The three new RTOs in New England, New York, and the Midwest completed zero, zero, and zero circuit miles.

A number of Northwest utilities feel strongly that improvements to the transmission system can be made without expanding FERC’s jurisdiction.  Rather than giving control over to a new organization and to FERC, policy decisions should be made here, and the decision-makers should be accountable to those who pay the bills – Northwest ratepayers.

The TIG plan creates no new entity. Instead, through multilateral contracts, Northwest transmission owners and users will agree to secure and use common regional services and practices. For example, the contracts would call for everyone to employ a common “OASIS” – a common computerized bulletin board analogous to Travelocity – where all utilities would post and could see available capacity on everyone’s transmission lines.  That would enable more efficient trading and more efficient use of the transmission lines.

Similar practices would be established for common planning of transmission lines, allocating transmission costs, ensuring reliability, and other improvements.

TIG capitalizes on the Northwest’s history of working together. This measured, phased approach reduces risk and should result in lower operating costs than Grid West.

The Northwest’s power grid faces challenges today and into the future. The solution is a measured, cost-effective approach that will enhance reliability and improve the operation of the transmission system, while maintaining the bedrock principles of public power: local control and accountability to ratepayers.

By Marilyn Showalter and Steve Johnson