Posted on 05/05/2004 9:04:33 AM PDT by Robert357
Edited on 05/07/2004 9:31:00 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
BEND, Ore. - Wholesale power rates may be higher this fall thanks to Oregon's fast-evaporating snowpack and low river levels.
Those conditions could leave hydroelectric plants unable to produce much power, according to a spokesman from the Bonneville Power Administration, which operates 31 dams in the Pacific Northwest and sells electricity to utility companies.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bellinghamherald.com ...
Specifically, it is now looking like the 37th worst year out of a 42 year string of water years for flows on the Columbia River. Put another way, the current forecast for water down the Columbia River is about 76% of the 30+ year average flow. More alarming, is that BC Hydro has publicly stated that they will be entering the wholesale power market to make purchases to support their needs this year. Usually they are a major seller of Power to California.
For the details check out the following
BPA hydrology River Forecast Page
I sure hope that the folks in California's power industry are carefully planning for this summer, as I don't think they are going to get too much help from Washington State. But hey it is an election year!
His post indicated that there was going to be a hydro power shortage from the Colorado this year and several years into the future.
I don't know about the future, but there isn't going to be a lot of cheap PNW hydro power to help out California's struggling economy. I would expect that there could be some interesting manuvering that will start to occur on trying to demand low wholesale power prices. Remember that after Gray Davis, the investment bankers who loaned money to the state to pay for past power bills have California ratepayers and politicians on a short leash. With high summer power prices, and a fall election, I expect that the leash will get pretty uncomfortable for some.
I have a son who lives and works in the LA area. I ocasionally monitor one of the LA TV station newsreports (KCAL 9 TV News)on the internet. What I find really interesting is how many stories about things in British Columbia Canada are placed under the "CALIFORNIA NEWS" title block. For example today as "California News" is a story about avian flue in Canada!
Therefore, if Spielberg gets upset with brownouts and air conditioning problems he will just go "on location" to Hollywoood-North (a.k.a. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada).
Whoops, now you've done it. Obviously, you're just a garden-variety commie environMENTAList wacko. Go back to the DU!!!!
The farmers around Blackfoot opened the headgates for their irrigation canals and left the fish in the Snake River high and dry. A pretty smelly mess. They should have notified the water authority to increase the flow before they opened the headgates.
The city of Pocatello was recently reminded that they have an annual maximum amount of water that they are permitted to pump from the groundwater aquifer. It is a hard limit on the number of people that can live in the area.
My grass returned to fully green by the first week in April. That is a full 30 days sooner than normal. The temps this week have been in the low 80's. The 30 year average normally finds our temps between 38 and 66 in May. April is normally between 31 and 57. We are just a few degrees short of record heat and we are designated as "Extreme Drought" in the precipitation department. Our Department of Water Resources shows stream flows at 57% of normal for the Portneuf River and groundwater at 47% of normal.
I don't see any surplus of water available here to generate power to bail California out. California hasn't done diddly squat since the power problems became evident in 1999. Five years is plenty of time to solve the problem if you want to solve the problem.
As a snow skier, the snow pack in the Cascades has been very good this year. However, the snowpack in the Canadian Rockies and the Rocky mountains is another story as is the soil moisture east of the cascades.
If you don't believe me, you can check out the following link Columbia River Basin Snow Pack
The majority of the hydro power generated in the PNW is from the Columbia and Snake Rivers. The worst year on record as far as hydro production for the region, was a year with above average snow (and electricity production) for the West Cascades. An acre foot of snow in the upper Canadian Rockies will provide water that goes through dozens of hydro projects. An acre foot of snow in the Cascades will go through at most two or three hydro plants of much smaller size.
This isn't a bunch of garbage.
As to BPA and the Oregon PUC...... BPA's ability to manage its rates and stay out of environmental & fish political payoff has turned out to be disappointing. The Oregon PUC on the otherhand, ..... oh never mind.
Both those plants supply power to Los Angeles.
Don't worry, when the Colorado River drops and the power from Hoover Dam and Glen Canyon isn't available to Southern California and then the EPA shuts down two major coal plants that supply power the southern California, and California can't get its normal fix of low cost PNW hydro electric power because of lack of water that BPA and BC Hydro can convert into electricity, then we can all listen as California leaders claim this is a total surprise to them, that they didn't see if coming and that had they known, they would have acted since the power crisis of a few years ago.
Life can be so predictable at times.
I remember once talking to another utility guy over a beer, in the days when we didn't have to be politically correct. This other guy from another utility had a "little old lady" call him and ask if her power was being generated by nuclear energy.
He told her that yes it was and that right now there were electrons, which were sort of nuclear particles, and they were within the wires in the walls of her house. These electrons had come from the local nuclear power plant.
I often wondered if there was some sweet little old lady huddled in a dark house, holding lead sheilding material between herself and here nearest electrical wall outlet.
Ah yes, I know he shouldn't have done, that but it was still fun to talk about.
Since it was the LA Times, I didn't post it, but thought you might be interested anyway. I wonder if FERC monitors FreeRepublic?
U.S. Official: Repeat of Power Crisis Is Possible -- The head of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said Wednesday that he was concerned about California's electricity market and warned of a possible repeat of the state's 2000-2001 energy shortage. "There are some very troublesome conditions out there," FERC Chairman Pat Wood told reporters after a meeting of FERC commissioners. "We're clearly monitoring that." The story is in the Los Angeles Times -- 5/6/04
I wonder if the "energy pirates" will be of a mind to bail out California again after what happened to them last time. Those that are still around, that is...
Aside: I was searching on google for information to help me troubleshoot the heat pump for my house. I was using the search terms "low suction pressure".
I laughed when one of the hits turned out to be a nuclear power plant problem that I discovered back in 1981. The bureaucrats at the NRC are still "evaluating" the problem after twenty-plus years and multi-millions of dollars of costs to consumers and a couple of near-meltdowns.
When I say "I discovered it" I mean "I was the only one in the entire United States and the rest of the free world" to predict and document this problem with the Residual Heat Removal (or Decay Heat Removal) system in Westinghouse PWR [Pressurized Water Reactor] power plants.
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. got rid of my a$$ rather than address or even acknowledge the problem.
The consumers have been paying for it ever since.
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