2012 policy material and background
BPA's proposed oversupply management protocol
BPA sought comments on a draft proposal to address seasonal electricity oversupply.
- Feb. 14 meeting materials
Filings with FERC:
Additional Responses can be found on FERC's Web site at http://elibrary.ferc.gov/idmws/docket_search.asp. At the site enter EL11-44 in the Docket Number field and click submit.
Monitoring
The agency continues to carefully monitor weather, streamflow trends, total dissolved gas levels, load and generation forecasts. Additional information is available below and on the BPA After-Hours web site.
- Spring Operations Review Forum meetings: during the spring runoff season, BPA is sponsoring weekly meetings to update interested parties on system operating conditions.
Assessment tools
Follow the links below to get real-time data on regional generation, load, river and weather conditions.
Join the conversation
- To join the e-mail distribution list, please send your contact information to
Maryam Asgharian, maasgharian@bpa.gov
- BPA will provide subscribers with new information as it becomes available and invitations to future public events.
2011 policy update material and background
BPA announced on May 13 that if the current weather, stream and load forecasts prove accurate, it is likely the region will face a temporary oversupply event - more electricity is generated than is needed - sometime in the next five days. In order to assure reliable energy delivery when generation exceeds loads, the difference must be exported, reduced or turned off. As a last resort, BPA issued its new Environmental Redispatch interim policy to temporarily limit energy generation.
If BPA has to implement this interim policy, BPA will first limit generation at coal, natural gas and other thermal power plants to minimum reliability levels. (The region's only nuclear plant is already shutdown for scheduled maintenance.) If generation continues to exceed load, BPA would then temporarily limit regional wind generators.
If BPA has to temporarily limit energy generation under Environmental Redispatch, it will replace all displaced thermal and wind generation with free hydropower from federal dams on the Columbia River system. BPA will continue working with its regional partners to develop a long-term solution to seasonal high water/high wind events.
- Read the final ROD
- BPA appreciates the effort customers and stakeholders invested in the comments they submitted.
- Read the ER Business Practice which supports the interim ER policy, and took effect on May 13, 2011.
Reports and context
- Read three recent products addressing different aspects of renewable resource integration, the temporary oversupply of power and Environmental Redispatch
- Overview of the six major categories of support BPA provides
wind generation in the Northwest.
- Summary of actions BPA considered to avoid Environmental Redispatch.
- Comprehensive analysis of BPA's interim
policy on Environmental Redispatch in Q & A format.
- Read an update from members of the Federal Columbia River Power System on spring runoff conditions and salmon migration:
FCRPS Biological Opinion, 2008 - 2018
- Read articles BPA has published on preparing for spring runoff and possible oversupply events.
- Read analysis of Total Dissolved Gas (TDG) studies by the Fish Passage Center and BPA.
- Read a background paper providing more information on the oversupply challenges facing the region.
- Review the proposal BPA sent to coal-fired thermal generation owners offering them a flexible displacement product designed to meet their power delivery obligations under specifically defined high streamflow conditions that result in temporary oversupply of power.
- BPA analyzed the scope of the potential financial impact of environmental redispatch.
This analysis incorporates peer review comments from analysts with national energy laboratories.
- In a February 2011 letter BPA gives an update of the actions the agency is working on, plus the notes from the December 2010 public workshop.
- Read a December 2010 update letter from BPA's project manager.
- BPA issued a baseline report in September 2010 outlining the steps BPA and others took during the June high Columbia River stream flow event to
avoid harming fish because of excess spill.
The agency used this report as a starting point for an open regional discussion about additional operational and policy tools that may be needed to respond effectively to future high-runoff events, and to protect fish listed under the Endangered Species Act.
Public meetings
BPA hosted a series of three workshops to share information about oversupply and to elicit feedback and comments from regional stakeholders in a public venue.
- February 25, 2011: more than 65 people attended. Workshop materials included these products:
- December 3, 2010: more than 60 people attended. Workshop materials included these products:
- October 12, 2010: more than 100 people attended. Workshop materials included these products:
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