Four Utilities Seek Share Of Dams’ Output

Four North Idaho utilities have asked federal regulators to set aside enough energy from two Columbia River dams to meet all their energy needs in the year 2005.

But the dams’ owner, Grant County Public Utility District, will resist the effort, said General Manager Don Godard.

The existing consumers of electricity from the Wanapum and Priest Rapids dams - Washington Water Power Co. among them - are entitled to keep their allocations when their contracts come up from renewal, he said.

The dispute demonstrates anew the increasing turmoil in Northwest energy markets.

Once awash in cheap hydropower, utilities are scrambling for new energy resources as the surplus dries up and customer demand continues to grow.

The Idaho utilities involved are Sandpoint-based Northern Lights Inc., Kootenai Electric Cooperative Inc. in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho County Light and Power Cooperative Association Inc. of Grangeville, and Clearwater Power Co. of Lewiston.

Kootenai Electric General Manger Bob Crump said the law that authorized Grant County to construct the Columbia dams in the mid-1950s said some of the energy they produced should be made available to neighboring states.

None of the Idaho utilities decided then to purchase any of the power because electricity from the Bonneville Power Administration was much cheaper, he said. That’s no longer the case. Bonneville charges its customers 2.7 cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity.

The Wanapum-Priest Rapids electricity costs less than 1 cent per kilowatt-hour, Godard said.

The two dams have the capacity to produce 1,800 megawatts of electricity. Grant County takes one-third of that, Godard said, and 12 customers who signed up in the 1950s take the rest. Grant County is negotiating with all of them for renewal of their 50-year contracts, he said.

WWP takes 130 megawatts from the dams when they are at full output. PacifiCorp is also a buyer.

Because those two utilities sell significant amounts of power in Idaho and Oregon, Godard said, customers in neighboring states are getting a share of the dams’ benefits, as the law provided.

“Our current set of customers meet that requirement,” he said.