Bonneville, the largest supplier of electricity in the Northwest, is outlining the infrastructure plans as electricity demand is expected to rise substantially in the years ahead in the region and as officials in the Northwest press to get more power from renewable sources.
The 13 proposed projects are in the early stages of development and must undergo preliminary engineering and environmental reviews before final decisions are made about whether to move ahead with construction, the agency said in a statement.
They would be in addition to BPA put forward in July 2023.
In total, Bonneville says it has more than 20 proposed grid expansion projects in the works, with an estimated total cost of about $5 billion.
鈥淭he 13 transmission projects being announced today by BPA represent a big step forward on system capacity and reliability,鈥� said David Crane, undersecretary for infrastructure at the U.S. Department of Energy, of which the BPA is a division.
Established in 1937, BPA sells wholesale power to utilities, municipalities, and other large-scale buyers. The electricity comes from 31 federal hydroelectric dams in the Northwest, the Columbia Generating Station nuclear power plant, and other smaller power plants.
Electricity demand in the Northwest in the next decade, according to a report released earlier this year by the Pacific Northwest Utilities Conference Committee. That鈥檚 triple a prediction from three years ago.
Large data centers, high-tech manufacturing, and electrification in buildings and transportation 鈥� with technology like heat pumps and electric vehicles 鈥� are among the factors driving demand.
BPA Administrator and CEO John Hairston said the projects that the agency is outlining would not be possible without additional borrowing authority that lawmakers from the Northwest pushed to include in the federal infrastructure package that President Biden signed into law in 2021.
That law increased the BPA鈥檚 borrowing authority with the U.S. Treasury by $10 billion to $17.7 billion. This is the main way the BPA finances capital projects.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, of Washington, who led efforts to get the expanded borrowing authority written into the infrastructure law, applauded BPA鈥檚 plans.
鈥淭hese investments will not only create thousands of construction jobs,鈥� she said in a statement, 鈥渢hey will help revitalize our Pacific Northwest grid so we can take advantage of countless manufacturing, electrification, and emission reduction opportunities.鈥�
BPA will host a public meeting at 10 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 17 to discuss the projects. More details on the meeting , along with .
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