Pacific Northwest-politics trumps technology [electric utility history]

The author presents an historical overview of the Pacific Northwest electric utility (North America). The utility has a peak load of 34,000 MW in the summer and 42000 MW in the winter, that includes 24000 miles of facilities at 230 kV and above in the slates of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Northern Nevada, and a portion of British Columbia and Alberta in Canada. Dominated by the Columbia River System, the area has been the low-cost region for electricity in the country for decades. Now the rights to the hydro-based power continue to be negotiated as separate economic and political commodities independent of the physical realities of power flow.