Lack Of Repair Money May Dim Region’s Lights Aging Generators In Bpa System Could Grind To Halt Because Of Poor Maintenance; Federal Budget Process Shorts Repairs

As the Northwest settles into the icy grip of winter, the big hydroelectric projects on the Columbia River are keeping up with the region’s energy needs - barely.

But in two or three years, generators strung like beads up and down the river system could grind to a halt because of poor maintenance.

Then, following the unforgiving law of supply and demand, the price of your power will increase.

That’s assuming there will be enough power to go around.

If major transmission lines fail, as they did twice last summer, the lights in the Northwest could dim. Electricity couldn’t be imported from other regions, and the big Columbia River generators wouldn’t be there to pick up the slack.

When your house grows cold and the bills go up, blame a creaky federal funding system that first saw light about 60 years ago.

But what worked well for decades probably won’t supply enough money for needed maintenance on Columbia and Snake river generators in the future, said Roy Fox, manager of federal hydro projects for the Bonneville Power Administration.

Bonneville, which markets about half of the region’s electricity, cannot own generating projects. So, other agencies own the generators, and Bonneville pays their bills.

The Army Corps of Engineers owns most big hydro dams in the Columbia system. The corps decides what repairs should be made and sends the budget back East.

That’s where the problems begin.

“The corps is a very large agency, in which hydropower is a very small part,” Fox said.

The budget clears the corps hierarchy, then goes to the Army, then to the Department of Defense, then to Congress. And at each step, the relatively small frog jumps into increasingly larger ponds.

The frog loses importance with each hop.

Once Congress authorizes spending for generator maintenance, money flows to the Corps of Engineers. At the end of the year, the federal treasury sends a bill to Bonneville for the work, and Bonneville pays it.

The system worked well when Bonneville was awash with money, held a stranglehold monopoly and didn’t have to pay between 20 percent and 30 percent of its budget in an attempt to bring salmon back to the Columbia River system.

But now, just as Bonneville faces strong competition, its costs are going up. There isn’t enough money to fix every generator that needs attention.

In the chill of winter - when Bonneville could sell every kilowatt it can get - about one-eighth of the Columbia system generators owned by the corps aren’t running.

The Dalles Dam, for example, has 22 generators. But about half aren’t running because vital components haven’t been fixed.

“There’s a finite amount of money the federal government has. It’s given to the corps on a project-by-project basis. … Sometimes the money goes to hydropower. Sometimes that work doesn’t get a high rank, and the work’s not done,” said Ray Schmitz, chief of operations for the corps’ Pacific Region.

Bonneville generally is happy with the maintenance schedule today, believing both agencies are balancing a limited amount of money with the demand for energy in the West Coast market.

The corps dams have received about $90 million annually for maintenance and operations over the past few years.

However, the amount allocated from that appropriation for fish costs has increased, and the amount for generator maintenance has decreased, Fox said.