The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA; Portland, Oregon, U.S.) has begun supplying power to Yakama Power (Toppenish, Washington, U.S.), a new utility owned by the Yakama Nation tribe. The utility has been picking up residential, governmental, commercial and industrial load from its predecessor, PacifiCorp.

The Yakama Nation Legends Casino in Toppenish was the first large customer to be served by BPA through Yakama Power, which came on-line in late March. The Tribal Campus followed, and the Yakama Forest Products facility received federal power beginning in mid-April.

Bonneville and the Yakama Nation signed a subscription power sales agreement in July 2000. The agreement was contingent upon Yakama successfully meeting BPA’s Standards for Service. Key standards included incorporation as an independent utility and ownership of distribution facilities.

In June 2001, Yakama Power agreed to waive its right to take power from BPA until after October 2003 as part of the agency’s load reduction and power buyback initiative. For the past three years, Yakama Power and BPA have worked closely to ensure the utility was progressing toward meeting BPA’s Standards for Service.

On Jan. 25, 2006, the Washington State Utilities and Transportation Commission approved the transfer of distribution assets from PacifiCorp to Yakama Power, sending the tribal utility on its way to becoming a reality.

Yakama Power is a full-requirements customer with load totaling about 3.25 MW. Like many BPA power customers, Yakama Power is not directly connected to the BPA transmission system and power is delivered over intervening systems—PacifiCorp and the Benton Rural Electric Association (REA), in this instance.

Yakama Power has already begun development of a residential conservation program and is considering renewable resource opportunities. The utility currently has five employees. Operation and maintenance of the distribution system is provided by Benton REA under contract.