Losses Include Highly Skilled Personnel Who Maintain Dams and Power Grid
‘Turn off the lights when you leave’ is a familiar phrase. It may assume a different meaning with significant Bonneville Power Administration staff cuts that could undermine the reliability of the region’s electrical grid.
As reported by OPB, President Trump’s spending cuts could reduce BPA’s workforce by 20 percent, including highly specialized linemen, engineers, substation operators and power dispatchers. At least 200 of the agency’s 3,000 employees have agreed to Trump’s early buyout offer. Up to 400 probationary employees will be let go and 90 pending job offers withdrawn. As many as 400 contractors could be cut.
While BPA is part of the Department of Energy, the agency doesn’t receive any congressional appropriations and is self-funded by distributing hydropower from 31 federal dams and operating 75 percent of the Northwest’s power grid with 15,000 miles of transmission lines.
The loss of highly trained and experienced workers could hinder core functions, BPA officials said. “While the number of people leaving is a concern, the real problem is who is leaving,” one BPA employee told OPB. “We have several mission-critical employees with decades of institutional knowledge who have accepted the [buyout] offer.”
Staff cuts could inhibit BPA’s ability to strengthen and modernize the region’s transmission grid to take greater advantage of renewable energy resources, meet growing electricity demand from data centers and deal with increasingly severe wildfire danger.
“No way, we’ll be in damage control and literally trying to keep the lights on,” one transmission employee told OPB. “Having one hand tied behind our back means putting the communities we serve at risk.”
Scott Simms, executive director of the Public Power Council, which represents BPA power customers, said the council would be sending letters and seeking meetings with the Trump administration to express the critical role of BPA’s functions for Northwest energy.
“It’s a huge duty and it’s extremely important and so we’ve got safety as an issue,” Simms said. “You’ve got mission-critical aspects in terms of dam operations, in terms of you’re making sure that those wires are safe, etc. so we want to make sure those folks who are highly trained remain in those jobs.”
BPA Administrator John Hairston said, “I want to express my appreciation to Bonneville’s workforce for navigating these changes with professionalism, maintaining focus on BPA’s critical mission and advancing our strategic initiatives.”
Hairston added the Trump administration has “made it clear that it’s a national priority to increase the abundance of affordable, reliable, and secure energy to strengthen the grid and to enable the projects that will improve people’s lives.”
“I can’t overemphasize this is a serious, serious operational problem,” Randall Hardy, an energy consultant and former administrator of BPA, told OPB. “The reliability impacts of this could be very serious. I mean the lights go out. Unplanned outages.”
Noting BPA’s staff and programs are self-funded with power and transmission sales, Hardy said, “So the administration isn’t saving a thing with these cuts. It doesn’t save one penny towards reducing the federal deficit.”
Last year, BPA revenues fell short of projections while demand sharply increased. Two years ago, BPA revenues exceeded projections by $900 million, which was sent back to customers to lower power rates. Staff cuts could reduce BPA outlays by an estimated $70 million.
Annual rainfall and snowpack totals are major factors impacting BPA revenues. “Hydrology and wholesale market prices remain the greatest volatility drivers to BPA’s financial performance,” according to Moody’s.
