YBSA Monthly Report June, 2011
YBSA Monthly Report
June, 2011
Letter to the Wind Integration Steering Committee co-Signed by James C. Waldo, GTH, Counsel for the Yakima Basin Storage Alliance: Yakima Basin Storage Alliance sent a letter to Steve Wright and Tom Karrier, co-chairs of Bonneville Power Administration Wind Integration Steering Committee asking the committee to recognize the importance of pumped storage in the federal evaluation of water project economics. We believe pumped storage offers the possibility of solving not only the problems created by integrating variable renewable resources such as wind generation into the grid, but also solving chronic problems such as assuring adequate water supplies for Central Washington’s agricultural communities and improving conditions in the Yakima River Basin for anadromous fish.
Pumped Storage/Wind Integration Provides Many Benefits: Several years ago the communities in the three county area of the Yakima River Basin passed resolutions of support for the concept of using pumped storage out of the Columbia River when water and energy were in surplus to augment the diminishing supply of water from the Yakima River system for consistent municipal supplies, fish, and economic growth. Those resolutions of support were very helpful as we raised $18 million in federal and state funds and completed the study by the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) of the Yakima River Basin Water Storage Feasibility Study (YRBWSFS).
That study is a good one, and the only thing that is out of date is the method the BOR used for projecting costs. That method has never found any project in the nation to be feasible, and the federal government is now changing the process to be more accurate by including all benefits, and looking for “least cost” options for meeting the goals.
The problem of insufficient water in the Yakima Basin is the same as it has been for years, and getting worse, particularly with the impact of climate change. We have as much precipitation as ever, but it comes at different times and in different forms than when the Yakima Project was planned and built. At risk is the dramatic amount of water storage we have had in the past in snow at high elevations, slowly melting to refill the five mountain reservoirs. We have the worst water storage ratio compared to the volumes of water needed of any BOR project in the nation. The big economic picture is bad, with banks now refusing to make production loans to many of the farmers that don’t have senior water rights, and only half of our basin acreage has that sort of guarantee.
The new approach we are taking is in reaction to what you are hearing in the news. The advent of government subsidized wind power (much of it to meet California’s need for environmental credits), and the dramatic over-supply of water in the Columbia and Snake Rivers as snow melts all too early, gives us weird patterns of too much energy now and the potential of energy and water shortages in the summer months. Bonneville Power (BPA) is having an impossible time in trying to integrate unpredictable wind power into our northwest grid and sell it to anyone, and actual negative pricing we saw last year will be repeated, with customers being paid by us to take our energy. BPA also has to use “economic redispatch”, a fancy way of saying we will have to turn off your wind machines when we can’t us the power, a great way to be sued by the wind industry because they lose their environmental payments when they aren’t running.
YBSA is embarking on a $75,000 evaluation of pumped energy storage. The investigative work will be done by Jim Waldo, a successful and well-known water and fish attorney, and he is coordinating the interests of all the parties, public and private, that are in the power or fish business. This effort is called the Columbia River Energy Storage Project or “CRESP”. Our goal is to see if we can work together, using outside money as well as ours to lower the cost of building and operating the facilities that serve all of our interests. This goal matches the stated desires of the U.S. Departments of Energy, Interior, and Commerce.
Pumped energy storage is the same concept as pumped water storage, except this time the water is pumped up out of the Priest Rapids pool, stored, and can be used to generate electricity when needed by running it back into the Columbia. This is a great benefit to fish as well as stabilizing the price of energy. It lets the wind turbines turn, and spilled water that harms fish be held until it helps. For Yakima Basin needs, our water flow would be into the Roza and Sunnyside Canals in the Moxee area, as designed in the BOR YRBWSFS. The benefits are spread throughout the three county area, because existing Yakima Project water is then managed to serve areas in need, like upper Kittitas County (with a moratorium by the state on new residential well permits), the rehabilitation of the Wapato Project (Yakama Reservation) with about 40,000 acres of land with a water right but no reliable supply, and rewatering and cooling the lower stretches of the Yakima River, a vital link in recreating a salmon fishery that takes us back to treaty days.
Now climate change is demonstrating the value of the inter-basin transfer of water, and having lost of capacity to store that pumped water and the energy it contains until it flows back downhill to stabilize regional energy supplies, as well as creating a better environment for fish production.
YBSA emphasizes that this effort is not in conflict with the purposes of the Integrated Work Plan being advanced (with our help) by the Department of Ecology and the Bureau of Reclamation. Rather, it is consistent with the plan being developed by the Work Group. In fact, it may provide significant opportunities that will complement many of the solutions being advanced in the process.
For additional information see www.ybsa.org