The Bonneville Power Administration proposes to “leverage its strong fiscal year 2022 financial performance to buffer against market volatility while holding power and transmission rates flat overall.”
For power rates, that financial performance provided an opportunity to include $129 million per year in additional risk protection without a rate increase. The additional risk protection increases the chances that BPA will see continued strong financial performance during the 2024 and 2025 rate period by building a financial buffer against the region’s increased market volatility, BPA said.
For transmission rates, a portion of BPA’s strong FY2022 financial performance is being proposed to keep the 2024 and 2025 rates flat.
“This is one of those bountiful years where all the elements and timing came together in such a manner that we can consider staving off inflation for another two years by keeping rates flat for our power and transmission customers,” said BPA Administrator John Hairston.
As a nonprofit entity, BPA is legally required to cover its costs and adjust rates accordingly. BPA establishes those rates for two-year periods through administrative proceedings called for by statute. BPA makes adjustments to the non-rate terms and conditions of its open access tariff for transmission service through a separate administrative process.
As preparatory workshops for the BP-24 Rate Case and TC-24 Tariff Proceeding came to a close at the end of summer, BPA proposed settlements based on stakeholder interactions that would address all the issues in staff’s initial proposals for each proceeding. The general consensus from stakeholders showed strong support in favor of proceeding with the settlements.
The terms of the settlements will be reflected in the initial proposals from staff in the BP-24 Rate Case and TC-24 Tariff Proceeding, which will be published Dec. 2 on BPA’s website. BPA’s final rates, if approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, will become effective Oct. 1, 2023, through Sept. 30, 2025.
BPA, headquartered in Portland, Ore., is a nonprofit federal power marketer that sells wholesale electricity from 31 federal hydroelectric projects and one nuclear plant to 142 Northwest electric utilities, serving millions of consumers and businesses in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, western Montana and parts of California, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. BPA delivers power via more than 15,000 circuit miles of lines and 259 substations to 490 transmission customers. BPA markets about a third of the electricity consumed in the Northwest and operates three-quarters of the region’s high-voltage transmission grid.
