BPA wants to pull plug on turbines
PORTLAND, OREGON - The Bonneville Power Administration wants to shut down Northwest wind farms this spring when hydroelectric dams are generating plenty of electricity as a huge mountain snowpack melts.
The Portland-based BPA may have to limit production from wind farms to free space in the regional power grid, The Seattle Times reported.
“We’re looking at doing everything we can to avoid the shutdowns, but you have to be able to do something when your back is against the wall,” said Doug Johnson, a BPA spokesman.
The wind-power producers are fighting the proposal that could cost them millions in lost revenue.
“There has been a strong united wind industry voice saying ’This is not reasonable,’” says Roby Roberts, a vice president of Horizon Wind Energy, which has built wind farms in Oregon and Washington.
Wind farms have been sprouting in Washington and Oregon thanks to tax credits and requirements that utilities use more renewable energy. The Northwest farms are capable of producing up to 3,500 megawatts of power — more than triple the energy of the Northwest’s sole nuclear-power plant. And that capacity could double by 2015.
A wind power shutdown would be a last resort, the BPA said, but it has to be ready to balance the flow of energy it markets in the Northwest as well as meeting commitments to ratepayers, helping salmon and selling power outside the region.
The industry says if there are shutdowns it should be compensated for lost revenue.
Related News
Nuclear plant workers cite lack of precautions around virus
HARTFORD - Workers at Connecticut's only nuclear power plant worry that managers are not taking enough precautions against the coronavirus after 750 temporary employees were brought in to help refuel one of the two active reactors.
Ten employees at the Millstone Power Station in Waterford have tested positive for the virus, and the arrival of the temporary workers alarms some of the permanent employees, The Day newspaper reported Sunday.
"Speaking specifically for the guard force, there's a lot of frustration, there's a lot of concern, and I would say there's anger," said Millstone security officer Jim Foley.
Foley, vice president of the local…