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Energy in the News
BPA asked to not raise rates for wind farms The Oregonian, Ted Sickinger Oregon's congressional delegation has asked the Bonneville Power Administration to back off a proposed increase in the price it charges wind farms to back up their intermittent electricity output. BPA expects to issue and order this month outlining new rates. A proposal issued this year called for quadrupling its so-called wind integration charge, from 68 cents per kilowatt month to $2.72 per kilowatt month. BPA needs to hold power in reserve to basck up and smooth out the irregular stream of electricity that intermittent power sources such as wind farms send into the grid. The federal power marketing agency, which sells electricity from 31 dams and a nuclear plant, also needs to manage its system to absorb sudden spikes in electricity generation when the wind picks up at the cluster of wind farms at the east end of the Columbia River Gorge. The cost of that integration has risen as wind generation has grown. For the past year, BPA has charged wind producers for the embedded costs rather than passing them along to public utility customers that buy most of the power. BPA controls much of the transmission system in the region, and the agency and its chief executive, Steve Wright, have taken heat from some outsiders who think it has put too many roadblocks in the way of wind development. Some lawmakers are concerned that the rate increase will make wind energy unafordable or discourage further development of wind projects in the Northwest as the Obama administration and the state legislature push for far more. They are particularly concerned about the impact on small-community-based wind farms, which don't enjoy the economies of scale or tax beneifts of larger, commercial-scale projects. "At a time when the region is facing serious economic headwinds, we can ill afford to undermine the potential development of the valuable renewable resource," said the letter, signed by Oregon's democratic senators, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, democratic representatives Earl Blumenauer, Peter DeFazio, David Wu and Kurt Schrader, and Washington representative Jay Inslee, also a Democrat. BPA spokesman Michael Milstein said the agency was already taking steps to reduce the charge, and it would likely be lower than the proposal when the agency's final rate order is issued. Part of the problem is improved wind forecasting and dynamic transmission shceduling. BPA is creating a new "wind desk" that will operate alongside meteorologists who track hydro conditions, Milstein said. The agency is also helping set up a market in which wind producers can trade the backup capacity they buy from BPA, presumably at discount prices. Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/oregonian
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