Dive Summary:

• The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) is pursuing a modification of Portland General Electric's (PGE) proposed Cascade Crossing Transmission Project.
• The project was originally proposed as a 215-mile line, but the modification proposal seeks to eliminate 101 miles of the project to avoid impacting local forests and agricultural land.
• The suggested changes also ask PGE to invest in grid enhancements with BPA to increase transmission capacity and potentially reduce congestion to enhance the grid's reliability.

From the article:

“PGE and BPA have been working collaboratively, using a ‘one-utility’ approach, to identify opportunities to leverage both utilities’ current and future transmission assets,” said Bill Nicholson, PGE senior vice president of customer service, transmission and distribution. “This solution should reduce the impacts of new transmission, manage costs and benefit customers of both utilities.”

“We are very pleased with the collaborative effort with PGE and believe we have found a better alternative that reduces the overall economic and environmental costs of adding transmission capacity,” said BPA Transmission Services senior vice president Larry Bekkedahl. “We are in the early stages of exploring the commercial business aspects of working together to assure adequate, reliable and cost-effective transmission is provided for the Northwest.” ...