Settlement near in BPA power dispute
By Suzanne Stevens, Business Journal Web Editor
Business Journal Web Editor
A tentative settlement has been reached in a long-simmering, far-reaching energy dispute over the Bonneville Power Administration's operation of the Residential Exchange Program.
Details of the settlement are still being finalized and because of a confidentiality agreement, Officials won't say whether it would include a rate reduction or any rate payer reimbursements. A final agreement is expected to be reached in a matter of weeks.
The program was created in 1980 by the Pacific Northwest Power Act to reduce disparities in the wholesale energy costs for BPA's consumer-owned utility customers — who benefited from cheap hydropower — and the region's residential customers of investor-owned utilities
The dispute stretches back more than a decade, when investor-owned utilities challenged BPA on the allocation of exchange program benefits. In 2000, BPA and the utilities reached settlement agreements. In 2007, however, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that those settlement agreements and their allocation of exchange settlement costs to publicly owned utilities were not in accordance with the Northwest Power Act.
A handful of additional administrative proceedings and lawsuits followed the ruling with the Citizens' Utility Board of Oregon; public utility commissions in Oregon, Washington and Idaho; and regional investor-owned utilities arguing for what they deemed a more equitable distribution of financial benefits.
"At the center of the debate is how benefits from the regional power system can be shared equally amongst all residents of the region — that includes both customers of BPA, but also investor-owned utilities," said Jeff Bissonnette, organizing director for the Citizens' Utility Board of Oregon, which represents residential rate payers of regulated utilities.
"What we seem to have is a framework where the region is coming together and settling contentious issues that have been floating around for many years," Bissonnette said. "We're very hopeful that we seem to have reached a consensus point."
sstevens@bizjournals.com | 503-219-3480
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