The Bonneville Power Administration has reduced its expectations for hydroelectric power revenue this year by more than $200 million because of new forecasts for dry weather and a continued depressed runoff in the Columbia Basin.
Based on the forecasts, BPA now estimates it will finish the fiscal year with a loss of $6 million in modified net revenues instead of the nearly $232 million in positive revenues projected at the start of the fiscal year in October.
BPA compiled the new estimates as part of its Quarterly Business Review. However, runoff projections have further declined since the estimates were developed.
The reduced estimates result from a persistent El Niño weather pattern that has brought unusually dry conditions to the Northwest.
The February forecast from the National Weather Service’s Northwest River Forecast Center called for 79.2 million acre-feet of runoff from January through July as traditionally measured at The Dalles, Ore. That represents 74 percent of the 30-year average of 107.3 million acre-feet and would be the lowest runoff since 2001.
