Managing power and rates
Interview with Steve Wright, administrator, Bonneville Power Administration

What will be the biggest challenge for Northwest utilities this year?

"We need to manage rates. Just about every utility in the Northwest has had major rate increases." A poor water year, Wright said, could make Bonneville's current financial crisis worse.

How will you respond to edicts from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that Northwest utilities put their transmission systems under the control of a single Regional Transmission Organization?

"The problem the commission is trying to solve with its order -- discrimination against new competition for transmission service -- does not arise in the Northwest the way it does in other regions. FERC's plan may not do what the commission intends, which is to improve service to customers."

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