Lower water runoff hits BPA revenue
The Bonneville Power Administration on Monday said it expects fiscal year revenue from hydro-electric power sales to drop more than $230 million than initially forecast because of a severe decline in runoff into the Columbia River Basin.
As a result, the Portland-based federal power agency, which markets electricity produced by dams in the Federal Columbia River Power System, said it will finish its fiscal year with a $6 million loss. At the start of the fiscal year in October, BPA forecast revenue of $231.9 million.
“This is a very serious decline that impacts our power supply and therefore our finances,” BPA Administrator Steve Wright said in a news release. “We’re hopeful that the outlook will improve, but we cannot count on it. The reality is that water is the fuel that provides much of the Northwest’s electricity.”
The February forecast from the National Weather Service’s Northwest River Forecast Center called for 79.2 million acre-feet of runoff from January through July as traditionally measured at The Dalles. That represents 74 percent of the 30-year average of 107.3 million acre feet and would be the lowest runoff since 2001.
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