BPA has released for public review and comment, its proposed long-term power sales agreement between BPA and Alcoa’s Intalco plant in Ferndale, Wash. The proposed contract would provide long-term certainty to Alcoa and its employees while allowing BPA to serve energy needs that yield operational and financial benefits for the region.

Under the proposed agreement, BPA would sell a maximum of 300 average megawatts (aMW) to Alcoa at the Industrial Firm Power (IP) rate through Sept. 30, 2022.

The term of the proposed contract is supported by the Equivalent Benefits Test (EBT), an analysis that helps the agency determine whether the proposed contract would produce net benefits to BPA ratepayers. EBT results for the proposed agreement show that BPA’s forecast benefits for providing firm power service to Alcoa’s Intalco Plant equal or exceed the forecast cost of providing such service at the IP rate.

In addition to providing Alcoa 300 aMW at BPA’s IP rate, the proposed agreement requires Alcoa to:

     • Employ a specified number of workers at the Intalco facility for the
         duration of the contract;
     • Make available to BPA 10 percent of the power delivered to Alcoa should BPA
         need it to meet its obligations during a system disturbance;
     • Invest $35 million in capital improvements in the facility during the first seven
         years if it wants the contract to run for the full term.

BPA has amended Alcoa’s existing Firm Power Sales Agreement (Extension Amendment) through December 2012 to ensure continued service for Alcoa’s load at the IP rate during the public comment period and final review of the proposed contract and EBT. The extension is consistent with sound business principles based on BPA’s current market analysis comparing the price of electricity on the spot market to the IP rate.  BPA expects to earn several million dollars in additional revenues during the extended term of the agreement.

BPA proposes to replace aging equipment at its Celilo converter station and to upgrade equipment on the Celilo-Sylmar 500-kilovolt (kV) transmission line from the Celilo converter station in The Dalles, Oregon to the Nevada-Oregon border (265 miles) where BPA's ownership of the 846-mile line terminates.

The project would modernize and simplify the equipment at Celilo, install four reinforced towers and upgraded hardware at selected locations on the northern part of the DC line. 

Contingent on completing appropriate environmental review, construction would start in fall 2013.

You may submit comments to BPA online at: www.bpa.gov/comment, or fax your comments to (503) 230-4019. You also may call us with your comments toll free at (800) 622-4519. Please submit comments to us by October 29, 2012 referencing "PDCI Upgrade Project". We will post all comments we receive on our website at www.bpa.gov/comment.

Public Meetings: 
 October  9, 2012 in Lakeview, OR  5:00 to 7:30 pm
 October 10, 2012 in Prineville, OR 5:00 to 7:30 pm
 October 11, 2012 in The Dalles, OR  4:30 to 7:00 pm

If you have a comment you would like to submit that doesn't fit into one of the formal comment periods that are open, you can submit it here.

Please include the subject of the comment in the first sentence.