• LVE reiterates importance to regional power generation.

In recent weeks the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) and Lower Valley Energy (LVE) had both expressed concern for closed door meetings taking place between entities that would like to breach the four lower dams of the Snake River as it empties into the Columbia. The past week, LVE praised those same dams as being the steady power generation needed during peak load times which they say the region experienced in mid-January.

“The Pacific Northwest stirred up cold weather and unusual demands on the grid that Lower Valley Energy belongs to,” the released stated. “According to Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), our federal electricity provider and supplier to the Pacific Northwest, the region suffered through the “most intense cold snap the Northwest had seen in 20 years.”

BPA reported the system peaking at 11,396 megawatt hours; with the previous high being in 1990.

Both BPA and LVE feel that the breaching of these key dams with only the concept of replacing them with solar or some other type of renewable energy is not good policy and would adversely affect residents not only in Star Valley, but throughout the northwest region.

BPA stated that “the lower Snake River dams are a “major contributor to [their] efforts to keep the lights on during the cold snap.”

Jim Webb, Lower Valley Energy President/CEO, said that the dams are the backbone of the Northwest grid and very important to Lower Valley.  Without them, the grid could have collapsed during the January cold spell.

“Without them, we could not support all the great wind and solar projects being built in the region.”