497 



Role of the Power Planning Council 



One of the central questions raised during the hearings relates to the role of the 

 Northwest Power Planning Council (Council) in resource acquisition, the strengths and 

 weaknesses of the Council's resource acquisition activities, whether the Council has 

 adequately exercised its responsibilities under the Act, and whether Bonneville is in 

 compliance with the Council's Energy Plan. 



The Council's ultimate value to the region in power planning is that it calculates the 

 cost of planning and operating as a region versus on an individual, utility-by-utility basis. 

 The resource cost estimates done by the Council help to provide a benchmark against which 

 all resource decisions can be judged. The world envisioned by the Act, with Bonneville 

 acquiring resources for everyone, including investor-owned utilities, is very different from 

 the world we now have. Although it is unlikely that we will experience "single utility" 

 planning and operation any time soon, it is still valuable to estimate the costs of pursuing 

 that course. In addition, the Council brings an element of public involvement that helps to 

 make all utility resource decisions more acceptable. 



It must be recognized that the Coimcil's role is planning, not implementation. 

 Congress never intended for the Council to directly implement the power plan, that job was 

 left to Bonneville and the region's utilities. The Council's mission is to develop a power 

 plan, establish model conservation standards and determine that the Administrator's actions 

 are consistent widi the plan. Congress did not envision an enforcement role for the 

 Council. It is not a regional public utilities commission. It is, of course, appropriate for 

 the Council to track Bonneville's implementation of the plan. 



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