Recent developments clearly show what has been said all along: Bonneville Power Administration’s I-5 Corridor Reinforcement Project is not needed to serve local Portland/Vancouver power needs as the BPA’s continued scare tactics would have us believe.
Portland General Electric recently announced it had signed contracts for two power plants, a wind farm and entered into a memorandum of understanding with the BPA. The MOU identifies specific upgrades to both the BPA and PGE grids that will allow PGE to serve its customers for decades to come.
A big outcome of this cooperation and other market-driven forces like conservation, lower growth and recovery from the recession have allowed PGE and cooperating partner BPA to cancel the 500 kv Cascade Crossing line and relieve constraints on the BPA transmission grid.
Now that this issue to serve the Portland/Vancouver load and BPA grid congestion has been resolved, BPA’s main justification for the I-5 reinforcement project is no longer valid, nor is the urgency to build it.
