The federal Columbia River Power System has delivered some of the cheapest power to the Pacific Northwest since visionaries created the system 75 years ago.

And it’s still producing the lion’s share — by far — of hydropower in the United States.

That was the message, Stephen Wright, administrator of the Bonneville Power Administration, delivered to more than 400 Flathead Electric Cooperative members gathered Saturday for the co-op’s annual meeting.

Wright made a special presentation in honor of BPA’s 75th anniversary, while Flathead Electric also celebrated its own 75th anniversary at the meeting.

“The federal hydro system is the envy of the rest of the world,” Wright said. “I’m worried we’re starting to take advantage of it. It’s owned by you, it’s part of your legacy, and it’s up to us to maintain it.”

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation own and operate 31 dams in the federal system. BPA markets wholesale power generated from those dams to users such as Flathead Electric, giving regional preference to the Pacific Northwest.  

“Power is produced at less than $10 per megawatt hour,” Wright said. “That’s about one-fifth of what other [power-producing] resources cost, and it’s nearly half the cost of what California pays. It’s an incredibly low-cost system.”

Wright said major corporations such as Amazon, BMW, Google and Wafertech have relocated to the Northwest because of the low cost of power.

In the industry, buying new electricity generation costs $60 to $100 per megawatt hour, he pointed out.

“We don’t have air-emission costs like other parts of the country,” Wright said. “If there were no federal hydro system there would be 15 more coal plants in the Northwest. That would make a huge difference in air quality. Our CO2 air emissions are a third of the rest of the country.”

Even though Bonneville touts low-cost power, it did raise wholesale rates last year and capped the amount of low-cost power it provides to Flathead Electric last fall, forcing Flathead Electric, in turn, to raise its rates.

The local co-op has warned its members they can expect 3 to 3.5 percent annual increases in coming years. The increase is about $3.90 a month for the average ratepayer.

There are several challenges in running the country’s most prolific hydro system, Wright acknowledged.

Mitigating the effects of the system on fish and wildlife is an ongoing issue for BPA.

In the past decade the Corps of Engineers has installed new, safer fishways in all eight federal dams that lie in the major migratory path of Columbia River salmon. Six dams now feature spillway weirs that let fish slide smoothly over a dam in the surface water, where they naturally swim.

Mitigation comes at a cost, though.

“Our rates would be 30 percent lower if [BPA] didn’t pay for fish and wildlife mitigation,” Wright said. “It’s a great challenge but we’re making substantial progress.”

Bonneville has successfully forged agreements with several American Indian tribes who once were adversaries but now are partners, he said.

Bringing more wind power into the system is another ongoing challenge. To that end, the McNary-John Day transmission line project was completed two weeks ago ahead of schedule and under budget, Wright said. Bonneville is committed to the Big Eddy-Knight transmission project in Oregon and Washington that will add another 28 miles of transmission line to accommodate more wind power.

During a recent 24-hour period last, more than 60 percent of the power load — 4,039 of the 6,400 megawatts — was generated by wind.

Wind on BPA’s system has grown from 25 megawatts in 1998 to more than 4,000 megawatts this year, and the goal is to integrate as many as 5,500 megawatts of wind energy into the regional grid by 2013.

“We plan to build more transmission lines to add wind,” Wright said. “We now have a fair amount of expertise with wind and its unpredictability.”

In addressing the gaps left by the unpredictable nature of wind, how to store power is another ongoing issue. Wright acknowledged that Bonneville “is at the point where we’ll need more storage,” but the question is who will pay for it.

“We develop the ideas and see who’s willing to pay for it,” he said, noting pilot programs such as one on the Olympic Peninsula where water heaters are heating at night.

“Battery storage is a possibility,” Wright said. “It’s getting noticed. It’s in the forefront of people’s minds, but [we] need someone willing to pay for it.”

Bonneville continues to draw inspiration from the visionaries who created the system as it looks to the future, Wright said.

“Think about what kind of spirit it took to work on something like Grand Coulee Dam,” he said. “This is one of the few federal programs that has paid for itself, and we continue to make investments.”

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.