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BPA Proposes 9.6% Rate Increase by Staff Portland Business Journal, November 9, 2012

The BPA supplies about a third of the Northwest's electricity from its Columbia River dams, including Bonneville Dam.

The Bonneville Power Administration on Thursday proposed a rate increase averaging 9.6 percent to the utilities throughout the Northwest that buy its power.

As the Puget Sound Business Journal reports, the main driver behind the increase: plunging market prices for natural gas-fueled energy, which depleted the BPA's revenue from surplus power sales.

The BPA, a nonprofit federal agency, supplies about a third of the Northwest's electricity from its Columbia River dams.

The price of energy from natural gas has dropped by about one-third over the past two years, BPA Administrator Steve Wright told the Puget Sound Business Journal, which in turn has affected the market for BPA hydropower.