I’m very proud to have been part of the team that developed NIPPC’s White Paper on BPA’s Tariff Revision Process. Sitting through the settlement discussions over the past few weeks, I am repeatedly surprised by the confidence of BPA’s staff that a few key changes to BPA’s tariff will solve all of the operational challenges they are currently facing. Customers made a mistake in allowing BPA to dictate the direction of the settlement discussions. Instead of trying to solve each operational headache with changes to the transmission tariff, BPA and the region should begin be achieving a consensus of the ideal end-state — presumably one where the transmission system is as flexible as possible in its integration of renewable energy. Unfortunately, BPA’s current path seems likely to reduce flexibility of the existing system and make it more complicated and expensive to integrate renewable energy into the grid. NIPPC proposes a better way: NIPPC TC-20 White Paper
What remains to be seen is whether BPA management can be decisive in pulling the plug on a flawed, ineffective process but one that staff and customers have invested in heavily. There is still time for BPA (and its customers) to walk into the future with eyes open.
