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BPA Says Wind Power Cutbacks at 7 Percent by Associated Press Mercury News, June 28, 2011

PORTLAND, Ore. -- The Bonneville Power Administration says springtime cutbacks of electricity from Northwest wind farms have amounted to about 7 percent of their scheduled output and are diminishing.

The agency manages much of the power grid in the Northwest. Since mid-May it has been curtailing wind turbines, mainly at nights and weekends when demand is low, because the water draining from a large mountain snowpack has left the region flush with hydropower from the Columbia Basin's dams.

With that runoff working its way down the river and out to sea, the BPA said Tuesday that cutbacks in the last week were down to 2 percent.

Wind farm companies have filed a complaint with federal regulators charging that the BPA broke contracts and discriminated against them when it imposed the cutbacks.