Dive Brief:
- Low snowpack has Washington state utilities concerned that hydro resources could be an issue but right now it looks as though resources are sufficient, reports KING 5 News.
- Takoma Power gets almost half of its power from hydro dams, with the balance coming from Bonneville Power Administration (BPA). Absent sufficient hydro, the utility could be forced to pay higher prices for power.
- Utilities in the state have been balancing the lack if snowpack by banking rain when it fell into the state's reservoirs.
Dive Insight:
While the Eastern half of the country is still digging out from the latest blizzard, it's been unseasonably warm on the West Coast this winter, and that's causing worry among utilities that rely on snow to replenish hydroelectric reservoirs.
It's not lower precipitation but the warm season which has reduced snowpack in Washington state, setting up a potential water shortage coming out of the Olympic Mountains and the Cascades.
According to the National Resource Conservation Service, water stored in the western half of the state's snowpack disrticts is below normal levels. But the Columbia River is actually ahead of normal totals, according to the BPA.
Columbia River Basin hydro plants account for about 29 GW, or between 33% and 40%, of U.S. hydroelectric capacity, and produced 44% of the total 2012 U.S. hydroelectric generation.
