Michael Sykes, general manager of Columbia River PUD, and PUD staff briefed the Columbia County Board of Commissioners on Sept. 24 about a BPA-led reinforcement (PAR) study that examined how to serve large projected load increases in the PUDservice area and neighboring utilities.

Sykes and PUD staff said Bonneville Power Administration received about 60 gigawatts of project requests in its footprint and that local studies indicate existing 115 kV infrastructure will not be adequate to serve the kinds of industrial and commercial loads being proposed. "Essentially, our existing transmission system is rated 115 kV, and the study said that needs to be upgraded to 230 kV," Sykes said.

PUD representatives described a potential project that would replace or upgrade roughly 50 miles of transmission and add 230/115 kV transformers; they estimated a ballpark cost near $100 million and cautioned about long lead times for major equipment such as transformers (30 to 60 months). The PUD team said securing right-of-way would be among the longest lead items and that cost-allocation remains under negotiation with Bonneville.

Brandon (last name on file), who participated in the study effort, said the PAR study looked at projected loads for pockets in Scappoose, St. Helens and Rainier and that Columbia-area scenarios studied ranged into the hundreds of megawatts (the PUD referenced study scenarios up to several hundred megawatts). The presenters said the PAR analysis and BPAplanning process will determine whether upgrades qualify as network costs that BPA would fund or whether local utilities and project customers must contribute.

PUD staff said Bonneville has committed to a multi-billion-dollar transmission program and is revising its processes to handle a large queue of customer requests. They also said the PUD has begun setting aside funds and convening regional stakeholders (a Columbia County SIL project convened under county grant facilitation) to examine funding and siting.

Commissioners thanked the PUD for the update, asked several follow-ups about timing and funding strategy, and suggested more frequent reporting. Michael Sykes and Brandon said they would return with updates; staff offered to report back sooner than six to nine months if the county preferred. No formal county action or funding commitment was requested at the meeting.