BPA funds all ongoing operations and repays the Federal investment in the Federal Columbia River Power System through the sale of wholesale electricity and transmission services. The federal system provides about one-third of the Pacific Northwest's electric energy and three-fourths of its high voltage transmission.

BPA is a not-for-profit agency. It is legally mandated to recover all of its costs in the rates it charges customers for wholesale electricity and transmission services. The agency is committed to careful cost management consistent with its legal obligations, sound business practice and environmental stewardship.

Each year BPA pays back to the U.S. Treasury a portion of the taxpayers' investment in the Federal Columbia River Power System, which includes the federal hydropower dams and transmission system.

The Bonneville Power Administration paid the U.S. Treasury $963 million for fiscal year 2008, which ended Sept. 30. This is a full annual payment, with interest, on the U.S. taxpayer investment in the Federal Columbia River Power System (FCRPS), which includes the federal hydropower dams and transmission system. The Treasury payment included $555 million in principal and $384 million in interest.

This fiscal year's $555 million principal payment included $211 million to repay bonds issued to the U.S. Treasury in excess of those scheduled in Federal Energy Regulatory Commission filings. BPA also paid $24 million in other obligations, including $18 million to assure that ratepayers, not taxpayers, fully fund post-retirement benefit programs for FCRPS employees.