Utilities scramble to cut power use

by Lynda V. Mapes Seattle Times staff reporter From dirtier air, shorter showers and fallow farm fields, effects will be felt across the state as utilities scramble to meet the Bonneville Power Administration's call to cut electricity use by 10 percent.

The BPA is about 3,000 megawatts short of meeting demand from public and private utilities as well as heavy industry for five-year contracts that begin Oct. 1. Rather than buy the needed power at ruinous prices on the wholesale market, the federal agency has asked utilities to reduce the amount of power they are expecting from the BPA.

That, in turn, will help keep BPA rate increases down.

For Seattle City Light, the 10 percent reduction translates into 50 megawatts. That's enough power for 40,000 homes and more than enough to power the University of Washington campus.

To meet its customers' demands and the BPA's warning, City Light may fire up diesel generators and bring in natural-gas turbines. The utility had eschewed both because of the air pollution they create.

The additions would help keep any City Light rate increases in the 25 percent range next fall instead of the 60 percent that would be necessary if the BPA can't reduce its power purchases, according to Bob Royer of City Light.

The city will also continue to push for conservation. Use in March was down 7 percent from the same month last year, adjusted for the weather, Royer said.

That's not as much as Gov. Gary Locke has called for. Locke wants to see a voluntary 10 percent reduction statewide.

The city will also continue its request to homeowners to keep the thermostat at 68 degrees when they're home and 55 when away and overnight, and to take showers lasting no longer than five minutes.

City Light will also keep power generation at maximum capacity at its hydroelectric complex, when it's possible without hurting fish, Royer said.

Tacoma Power will keep cranking its diesel-generator farm, which creates more than 40 megawatts. Tacoma customers have also cut use by 12 percent since January, said utility Superintendent Steve Klein.

Across the mountains, farmers are sowing wheat instead of irrigated spuds and sugar beets. Or they are just leaving the ground fallow as utilities work to lower demand.

Deep-well irrigators use massive pumps with 650-horsepower engines to pump water hundreds of feet from below ground. Their power bills can be $50,000 for one pump in one season.

Big Bend Electric Co-op in Ritzville, Adams County, with the largest irrigation demand in the state, has urged growers with a combined demand of 9,000 megawatts to idle their pumps.

Jim Johnson, manager of the co-op, said it will also launch its first-ever conservation program, encouraging efficient pumps and urging homeowners to buy more energy-efficient appliances.

Puget Sound Energy won't reduce the amount of power it takes from the BPA come October, even if rates go up, said spokesman Roger Thompson. "We don't believe our customers should receive fewer benefits from the federal power system," Thompson said.

But the investor-owned utility, the state's largest, still intends to cut overall consumption by giving customers incentive to shift their use to off-peak times and cut overall use.

Most utilities said while the BPA's 10 percent target won't be easy, it beats rate increases of more than 200 percent.

"The bottom line is we just have to do it," said Aaron Jones of the Rural Electric Cooperative Association.

Some blamed the BPA for putting the region in a fix by over-promising power to users that don't have first crack at BPA power, as do public utilities and residential customers of investor-owned utilities.

"They promised everything to everybody," said Jerry Leone, manager of the Public Power Council, which represents 114 consumer-owned utilities statewide. "Bonneville got themselves into one horrible mess, and it is harming their customers because of it. We are being asked to give up for those who don't have public preference."

Aluminum companies were promised more than 1,400 megawatts come October, even though the BPA had no obligation to serve them. But it made the commitment under pressure from the Clinton administration, which wanted to be in good favor in an election year, said BPA spokesman Ed Mosey.

Now the agency is urging those companies to voluntarily shut down for two years.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/SeattleTimes.woa/wa/gotoArticle?zsection_id=268466359&text_only=0&slug=utilities11m0&document_id=134283439

-- Carl Jenkins (somewherepress@aol.com), April 11, 2001