IRVING, Texas — Former Bonneville Power Administration heads Randy Hardy (1991-1997) and Stephen Wright (2000-2013) have again collaborated on a public letter distributed in the Pacific Northwest about the “tremendous risk being created” in the region by workforce reductions at the federal agency.

In a letter made public March 3, which followed a previous letter in February, Hardy and Wright argued that the reductions will not realize taxpayer savings, as all BPA expenses are funded through electricity rates charged to its utility customers and passed on to retail consumers. They noted that the federal power marketing administration has already lost 14% of its workforce and a fifth of its power dispatchers, endangering the entire Northwest power grid.

“There has been no strategy to the workforce reductions such as targeting less important positions, or fencing off positions critical to ensuring public health and safety such as power dispatchers and lineworkers,” the former administrators wrote. “While BPA management is strictly limiting communication, from our experience we can presume that management is now attempting to plug round pegs into square holes and in many cases not having anywhere near enough pegs.”

“The implications of those people dropping out of the workforce without a plan just leads one to question: ‘What are the impacts going to be?’” Wright, a member of SPP’s Board of Directors, told RTO Insider as the letter was being released. “When you have people that are everything from duty schedulers, hydro schedulers to linemen, it just leaves you with a bunch of questions about, well, how are they going to manage through this? And then what implications are there for others that are impacted by their operations? They’re so interconnected, there’s a chance that that could be widespread.”

The administrators added three concerns to those expressed in their previous letter:

• • The reductions will increase outage repair times across BPA’s six-state region.
  • Employee safety will be compromised with crews stretched thin and likely requiring more overtime.
  • Geopolitical tension translates to risk of cybersecurity intrusions.

“We reemphasize that we strongly support seeking efficiency gains especially through the adoption of new technology,” Hardy and Wright wrote. “But electricity delivery, unlike many other businesses, is a function where the public reasonably expects — and public health and safety demands — round-the-clock, uninterrupted service.”

They closed their missive by asking for relief from the Department of Energy, urging a total exemption from pending reductions, lifting an existing hiring freeze, rehiring the 100 or so probationary employees already laid off, and exempting the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation staff who are funded by BPA revenues.

BPA is part of DOE and provides about 28% of the Northwestern U.S.’ electricity, managing a 15,000-mile transmission network. It is one of the key potential participants in SPP’s Markets+, a day-ahead service offering. Wright serves as chair of the Interim Markets+ Independent Panel and is one of three SPP directors serving on it.

The letter was written for those in the Northwest and distributed by the Public Power Council and others. Hardy took the message to The Seattle Times.

Wright said he and Hardy are simply doing what others can’t.

“We’re putting information out right for people to be aware of,” he said. “The problem is, it’s difficult for the agencies to talk about this, and so, to some extent, we have to surmise some things. But between Randy and me, we just have enough years having been at Bonneville; we can put pieces together that it might not be easy for other people to put together.”

Wright was speaking during a break in SPP’s Energy Synergy Summit. In a separate meeting earlier that day, he asked SPP legal staff about staff reductions at FERC and the potential effect on the grid operator’s “specific issues.”

“I was asking the question because I don’t know what’s going on, but the way [job reductions] landed at Bonneville, I don’t know why it would be significantly different: … the relatively random nature in which people are choosing to resign, or the implications of probationary employees,” he said. “And by the way, ‘probationary employee’ doesn’t mean that they’re new.”

According to the U.S. government, probationary federal workers are new or reassigned employees under evaluation during a trial period, which generally lasts a year. A federal employee can become probationary with a transfer or new job within the same department.

When it was pointed out to Wright during the meeting that he is helping to raise awareness of the layoffs and their potential effect on the Northwest, he said, “This is a very active conversation in the Northwest.”

“The thing that really is bothersome about this is that it doesn’t do anything for the federal deficit,” he said.

In the letter, Wright and Hardy wrote, “Reducing BPA staff does not save U.S. taxpayers one dime.”

The former administrators are not alone in expressing their concerns over the BPA job reductions. Wright reeled off a list of several other public figures who are also speaking up: All but one of Washington state’s Democratic U.S. representatives, who wrote a letter to Energy Secretary Chris Wright (Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez was the lone holdout); Energy and Commerce Committee member Rep. Kim Schrier (D-Wash.), who made a speech on the House floor; and Oregon’s U.S. senators, Ron Wyden (D) and Jeff Merkley (D), who wrote a letter to President Donald Trump. (See Ore. Senators Ask Trump to Justify ‘Reckless’ Job Cuts at BPA.)

Wright said the only Pacific Northwest Republican who has spoken about the issue is U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse (Wash.). “He did it in a newsletter to his constituents, just saying he’s concerned about the impacts on the energy and research issues. He also has a National Lab in his district,” Wright said.

Asked if the outreach to the government and stakeholders is working, Wright said, “It’s definitely getting attention. I mean, a fair amount of attention.”

Fred Heutte, senior policy associate with the Northwest Energy Coalition, agreed with the sentiments in the letter. He told RTO Insider that though NWEC disagrees with BPA on many issues, “we are absolutely committed to the idea that Bonneville must have the staff to operate the system day-to-day.”

The staffing crisis “is a direct threat to reliability,” Heutte said. He added that regional entities, such as WECC, “have a role in standing up and saying that their main focus under the [Energy Policy Act of 2005] is reliability.”

Heutte sits on WECC’s Member Advisory Committee. The organization oversees compliance with reliability standards. It also conducts resource assessments and planning functions for the Western Interconnection.

Approximately 90 million people are served in the Western Interconnection. Heutte said that WECC speaking up would send a “very important signal.”

“We want people to say, ‘If I flip the switch, the lights will go on.’ That’s a good thing, but there’s an enormous amount of work and enormous amount of vulnerability now to not having the staff sufficient to make that happen. So I hope at the appropriate time that WECC will speak up.”

When asked to comment on the letter, BPA spokesperson Doug Johnson told RTO Insider in an email that “there is nothing in the letter we feel the need to correct or expand upon.”

“WECC is aware of the personnel impacts at Bonneville Power Administration and other federal entities in the West,” Kris Raper, vice president of strategic engagement and external affairs at WECC, told RTO Insider in an email. “We will continue to monitor the situation as it develops, including collaborating and coordinating with BPA and other electric industry owners and operators in support of their role in serving customers with the essential power that they need.”