Snowpack Means Lots of Power

KALISPELL -Apr 19 - Missoulian

This winter's solid snowpack is welcome news for the region's electricity grid, creating enough surplus power to light two cities the size of Seattle.

"Right now, we feel we have zero chance of brownouts or blackouts," said John Harrison of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council. The council is a collective of Northwest states, including Montana, charged by Congress with ensuring affordable and reliable hydropower in the region.

"Good snowpack and runoff," Harrison said, "certainly help the situation."

For the past several years, the spring runoff has fallen 20 percent short of average. That's 20 percent less water to fill reservoirs and spin hydroelectric turbines at 31 federal dams in the Columbia River Basin.

In the dry days of 2001, only 58 percent of the region's average spring melt flowed from the high country.

But this year, predictions put runoff at a healthy 100 percent of average right through July. In fact, 2006 is shaping up to be a bit better than average, ranking 46th in the 77 water years tracked back to 1929.

All that water, when combined with recent investments in thermal (coal or gas) power plants, has created a regional surplus of about 2,400 average megawatts - twice the city of Seattle's annual use.

That figure is an average for the entire year, but the actual surplus fluctuates month to month. In April, for instance, the surplus should run about 2,000 megawatts, because much water will still be trapped in ice and snow atop mountain peaks.

By July, however, the snow should have melted to fill reservoirs, and the council predicts a regional surplus exceeding 8,000 average megawatts.

(An average megawatt is 1 million waits delivered continuously for one year, enough to power about 730 homes.)

Those are estimates, based on usual use and runoff patterns, "but even under the worst expected water condition for this year, the region continues to have an adequate supply," analyst John Fazio wrote in his report to the power council.

That's good news for the grid, Harrison said last week, and good news for consumers, who were hit by severe shortages back in 2000 and 2001. Several industries, including mines and aluminum smelters, closed their doors in Montana at the height of that shortage.

Dams in the Columbia River Basin provide about 40 percent of the region's power, Harrison said, ensuring an affordable and - so long as it snows - reliable source of electricity.

"This year," he said, "things look very, very good."

Coming Monday:

Supplying electric power is all about risk. Just ask officials at the Bonneville Power Administration.