Stringing lines along the taft-bell.
The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) is a federal agency created by congress in 1937 to sell and deliver power from the Bonneville and Grand Coulee dams. as additional generating facilities and dams were built, bpa has been given authorization to market power from them. bpa supplies nearly half the electricity consumed in the pacific north- west. The federal dams can produce a maximum of 22,000 megawatts (or 22 million kilowatts). BPA has built more than 14,000 circuit miles of high-volume power lines and 380 substations across the northwest. Although bpa is part of the department of energy, it is not funded by tax revenues. bpa is "self-financed", it covers operation and maintenance costs through its revenues. Congress has also authorized bpa to finance new transmission facilities, conservation programs and fish-protection measures by borrowing from the U.S. treasury. BPA is also responsible for meeting future power needs of the region's utilities. bpa is authorized, under the guidelines of the pacific northwest power planning and conservation act of 1980, to acquire power from new resources: renewable, cogeneration, and thermal projects such as nuclear or coal-fired plants.
Original public domain image from Flickr