Quickly access topics of public interest and latest developments in the rapidly changing utility industry that affect multiple aspects of WAPA's mission or services.
Latest market news -- Expressing interest in SPP RTO membership for Lap, ugp-west
On Nov. 12, 2020, WAPA announced that it would collaborate with Southwest Power Pool and numerous other utilities to explore participation in the SPP Regional Transmission Organization for Loveland Area Projects and Upper Great Plains - West. Southwest Power Pool distributed a press release the same day about the initiative. This investigation extends only to UGP-West and LAP. The Colorado River Storage Project and Desert Southwest region will continue to evaluate the best options for their operations and customers.
As this effort matures, WAPA will create a webpage to share more information with customers and other stakeholders as well as hold initial discussions and analyses. WAPA is committed to working with customers on this evaluation and following all formal processes before any final decisions are made.
Governance and policy biennial report
Office of Governance and Policy Biennial Report -- Fiscal Years 2018 & 2019 Accomplishments
This biennial report highlights some of the accomplishments within WAPA's Office of Governance and Policy for the past two fiscal years. The Office of Governance and Policy includes Internal Audit and Compliance and Financial Program and Policy. These two groups improve compliance and decision making across WAPA by auditing and review WAPA's projects, programs and initiatives; monitoring corrective action implementation; and providing guidance on the adequacy of WAPA's internal controls.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Reserve Funding Strategy
LATEST UPDATE: July 13, 2018:The Department of Energy Inspector General concluded WAPA is appropriately managing its unobligated balances inits final report titled
Western Area Power Administration’s Unobligated Balances from Various Funding Sources. Specifically, the report found WAPA had appropriately:
-
Retained and carried forward unobligated balances in its Construction, Rehabilitation, Operation and Maintenance account from year to year;
-
Developed and implemented a strategy for managing its unobligated balances in fiscal year 2017, as well as established a mechanism to monitor and report the balances; and
-
Disclosed its unobligated balances tide's Office of the Chief Financial Officer, the Office of Management and Budget and Congress as part of the president’s budget request.
Unobligated balances help WAPA continue to operate during emergencies and serve as WAPA's main capital funding tool, assuring sufficient funding for WAPA projects and ensure WAPA is in compliance with the Contribution Funds Act and Anti-Deficiency Act. The practice of using unobligated balances has been in place since WAPA's founding in 1977. Under the fiscal year 2016-2020 strategy, WAPA identified target reserve balance amounts for three programs and will monitor unobligated balances monthly to ensure balances and plans align with the reserve strategy.
-
Statement from Mark A Gabriel, Administrator and CEO:“The unobligated balance strategy is integral to our mission. It ensures we can continue delivering reliable electricity to more than 40 million Americans, regardless of unexpected events or crises.”
Read more about the Reserve Funding Strategy on the
Financial Transparency webpage.
GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE REPORT
Dec. 15, 2016: WAPA
fully implements GAO recommendation
Oct. 30, 2015:
GAO releases report on WAPA's and other agencies unobligated balances.
-
Excerpt from GAO report: "GAO found that the selected agencies—the Departments of Commerce, Energy, and State, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)—generally managed and tracked unobligated balances to ensure the effective use of program resources in the eight reviewed accounts.”
RESERVE FUNDINGSTRATEGY
YEAR END RESERVEBALANCES
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SITE SECURITY
LATEST UPDATE: June 29, 2018: The DOE Inspector General published its final report on
Security Allegations at a Western Area Power Administration site. Out of 15 allegations, two were substantiated with impact regarding evacuation drills and quality of some of the site's security cameras. The findings and recommendations from the IG report were concurred by WAPA's management team, and improvements have been implemented.
Excerpt from the DOE IG
report: Management comments and corrective actions were responsive to our recommendations.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
TRANSPARENCY
LATEST UPDATE: May 14,
2018: Two years after its initial release,
The Source website has expanded to include
a decade’s worth of financial information related to WAPA's operations and activities. The expansion was modeled after the January 2018 draft of the Western Area Power Administration Transparency Act in the Senate and includes rates and sales data by power system, staffing numbers, expenditures and capital investments. Learn more at the
press release.
-
Statement from Mark A. Gabriel, Administrator and CEO: “The Source expansion provides accurate information in a way that is meaningful for our customers, members of Congress and other stakeholders. Transparency is integral to business, technology and organizational excellence and our refreshed core values. We look forward to further communicating with our customers to meet their needs in the energy frontier.”
-
Statement from Dennis Sullivan, Senior VP and Chief Financial Officer: “This is the culmination of several months of effort by many people around the organization. We will refresh this data annually for years to come as we continue to improve our collaborative transparency efforts with customers.”
WAPA meets with customers periodically to share annual budget plans and capital investments for the next 10 years. In these meetings, customers get insight into long-term capital investment plans, future annual budgets and current-year budget execution. In Desert Southwest, WAPA established a customer technical committee to give customers additional insight and financial transparency.
ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND
July 2017: WAPA has provided 12,945 documents to the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee in response to requests for information.
June 14, 2017: Testimony before Senate Subcommittee on Water and Power
May 18, 2017: Testimony before House Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans
Learn more about the
S.930 - Western Area Power Administration Transparency Act.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
LATEST UPDATE: March 16, 2017: The Department of Energy Inspector General published its report on actions Desert Southwest and WAPA had taken on government purchase cards (OIG-IR-17-01, March 2017). The report confirmed that WAPA took numerous corrective actions to address issues with Desert Southwest’s use of GPCs.
Excerpt from DOE IG report: “We found that Desert Southwest had taken numerous actions to address the issues identified in the internal review. In addition, WAPA's Headquarters had taken specific actions to address issues identified with Desert Southwest’s use of GPCs as well as actions to improve the overall Western-wide GPC Program.”
The OIG conducted the review in response to WAPA's self-reported2014 and 2016 internal reviews, which uncovered procedural non-compliance in the WAPA-wide GPC program and a limited number of incidents of misuse. WAPA referred $1.2 million in suspicious and potentially fraudulent purchases to DOE IG for further investigation. Upon uncovering the issues in 2014, WAPA leadership took immediate action and instituted a corrective action plan reinforcing management oversight and appropriate processes and procedures, updating GPC policy and procedures, launching additional training to cardholders, implementing new tools for management and tracking of purchases, and revising roles and responsibilities of employees. To date, several individuals have received formal disciplinary action, including some departures. One employee was sentenced in federal court with over $168,000 in restitution and five years of probation.
Under improved policies and procedures, WAPA’s supervisors review purchases monthly, and the Government Purchase Card program as a whole is proactively monitored by WAPA on a quarterly basis.
ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
BUDGETING AND RATES
STATEMENT ON DOUBLE BUDGETING
The term double budgeting is a misnomer, and WAPA is not charging customers for electric service while, at the same time, receiving federal appropriations for that service. WAPA is committed to working in partnership with its Desert Southwest customers to streamline the manner in which it uses different authorities to accept customer payment and funding, and anticipates discussions on this topic to begin soon.
STATEMENT ABOUT RATES
There are 10 rate-setting power systems with in WAPA and each rate is impacted differently by hydrology and the operation and maintenance costs of WAPA and the generating agencies that operate the dams. As a result, some power systems can experience rate increases while others may benefit from a rate reduction or enjoy flat rates over an extended period. Ultimately, WAPA rates align with what is needed to maintain and operate an affordable, safe, secure and reliable electric system that serves 40 million homes and businesses. Toward that end, WAPA meets with customers throughout the year and carefully considers input to make sound business decisions concerning power rates. WAPA's 10-year capital planning processes ensure that customers vote on what they pay for, including capital investments funded by prepayments for service. WAPA continues to emphasize and improve the transparency of its processes, collaborate with stakeholders, and provide timely information necessary to make informed decisions."
ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND
"The demands of operating a complex power delivery system have resulted in some increased spending (such as for physical and cyber security needs and related requirements), but at the same time WAPA continues to identify and implement measures to save money. All WAPA regions benefit from the $22 million saved to date as a result of continuous process improvement activities across the agency."
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Reliability
WAPA proactively addresses system reliability and contingency planning. Delivering on our mission of marketing federal hydropower throughout 15 states requires us to continually study and analyze operations. We partner with our customers and neighboring utilities with the goal of improving situational awareness and contingency planning for transmission providers and reliability coordinators so they are prepared for a worst-case scenario in real-time conditions.
Read more about
WAPA's reliability assurance efforts.
