For the past few years, three simple letters have triggered complex concerns throughout many parts of east Clark County: BPA.
By definition and function, the Bonneville Power Administration is not particularly intimidating. Many of its customers in Clark County take for granted the fact that the BPA routinely ships electricity that ends up in homes and businesses. But when the BPA announced in 2009 that it will need a new major power line here for the first time in 40 years, and when that line was projected to run through Clark County, thousands of residents became understandably worried. They are anxious about the threat of declining property values, possible health hazards and the eyesore factor of 500-kilovolt power lines hanging on towers as tall as 15-story buildings.
To its credit, the BPA has engaged in a massive public awareness campaign, listening to citizens at numerous public meetings and maintaining a somewhat comforting top priority: to avoid, whenever possible, forcing people to move out of their homes.
Last week brought the BPA’s latest effort to mitigate the impact of the new power line and assuage the concerns of residents and business owners. As Erik Robinson reported in Friday’s Columbian, the BPA is exploring “nonwire” alternatives for transmitting power that could forestall the need for a new power line for five years or longer. In one way, this makes things better for east county residents. Slowing down the pace of this project (already several years in the making) at least diminishes the urgency of their concerns. And it never hurts for the BPA to explore alternative solutions.
But in another way, postponing what could be the inevitable might just turn a five-year worry into a 10- or 15-year worry. Whether property values will decline has not been decided by the BPA’s most recent efforts. Perhaps full resolution has just been kicked down the road a little.
Nevertheless, we see last week’s developments as a net positive, even if by just a slight margin. The good-faith efforts of the BPA have been further manifested in hiring a San Francisco-based consulting firm to search for new and different answers. Among the new recommendations are reducing peak loads during the summer when the grid ships electricity to California, and implementing an aggressive energy-efficiency initiative in the Portland-Vancouver area.
That second idea — instituting an energy conservation program — carries a certain appeal because it would help electricity consumers become partners in efforts to delay construction of a new power line. Of their own volition and by adjusting their own habits for consuming electricity, county residents and businesses could impact this issue. Also, they could save money by lowering their electricity bills.
Additionally, the BPA is exploring ways to contract with power plants north and south of Portland-Vancouver to adjust energy output in ways that minimize power-transmission congestion on the I-5 corridor.
Further to its credit, the BPA is reconvening a panel of energy experts, who met a few years ago, to examine the “nonwire” alternatives.
It’s mildly reassuring to know that one cause of this problem — modern technology — could become part of the solution. The evolution of technology in the power industry is stunningly rapid. New efficiencies unfold constantly in appliances and transmission techniques. So maybe buying a few more years will help.
Ultimately, though, residents should understand that this threat might never go away. Finding a way to deal with it is the best solution, and to be given a few more years to conduct that search should be viewed as a good thing.
