Frequently Asked Questions
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Who uses hydropower in the Northwest?
In short, everyone! Hydropower in the Northwest is generated by federally owned and operated dams, and distributed by the Bonneville Power Administration to publicly owned, not-for-profit utilities that serve millions of Northwest customers. Many utilities serving communities across the region also have ownership of hydropower facilities as well.
In total, about half of all energy capacity in the Northwest is hydropower. That means, if you live in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Western Montana, or even beyond, every battery charged, and switch flipped is powered by our dams.
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Is hydropower outdated?
Hydropower continues to meet the needs of millions of people who rely on its affordable, reliable, carbon-free electricity. Today, it remains one of the most significant and effective sources of renewable energy in the Northwest. Our dams have benefited from upgrades to the turbines, improved fish passage, and infrastructure upgrades to generation and navigation equipment.
In addition to upgrading existing structures, the cutting edge of hydropower today is in small hydropower projects, adding generation to currently non-powered dams and building pumped storage hydropower facilities with battery-like capability. Our past, present and future are intertwined with power generated from water.
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What is the role of hydropower in our clean energy future?
For decades, hydropower has been the region’s main source of affordable, reliable, carbon free electricity. Electricity demand is dramatically growing from data centers, manufacturing, and electrifying vehicles, buildings and other parts of our everyday lives. Meeting major increases in electric usage while complying with aggressive clean energy mandates will require all of our existing hydropower and significant increases in new generating resources.
Hydropower also provides firm generation–meaning it can provide energy on demand. When combined with its storage capabilities, our dams can provide ideal support for intermittent renewables like wind and solar, similar to how a battery functions. You can learn more about this process on our "Supporting Wind & Solar" page.
This clean energy future must also ensure it leaves nobody behind and keeping the price of electricity affordable is essential to that. The Northwest enjoys some of the lowest rates in the nation thanks to our hydropower.
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How does hydropower support grid reliability?
Grid reliability is a balancing act. A perfect harmony must be kept between the amount of energy we generate and the amount we consume at all times. If there’s too much energy on the grid, or not enough, energy infrastructure begins to fail, and blackouts can occur. To keep that balance, we need resources that can keep up with our energy needs.
Hydropower has led the way in reliably performing that balancing act in our region for decades. We’ve also seen with recent heat waves and cold snaps that when energy demand is far higher than normal, hydropower can ramp up to help meet that need, too. These extreme weather events have brought the Northwest dangerously close to blackouts, but each time hydropower has helped keep the lights on when we needed it.
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How does hydropower support affordable energy rates in the Northwest?
Hydropower plays a crucial role in keeping energy rates affordable in the Northwest. Thanks to a steady supply of precipitation in our region, we have an excellent source of reliable energy from our dams. Additionally, these facilities were established decades ago and are cost-effective to maintain and upgrade when compared to building new resources. This is especially important as many states and communities in the Northwest work to meet clean energy mandates and aggressive decarbonization goals.
This lower cost energy is supplied in large part by federal agencies to not-for-profit, community-owned utilities who prioritize maintaining the most affordable, cost-based rates for their customers. Hydropower is the main reason that millions of Northwest electricity customers enjoy the lowest rates in the nation.
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What benefits does hydropower provide?
Hydropower offers a multitude of benefits that are essential to our everyday lives. Primarily, it is touted for providing affordable, reliable, carbon-free energy. In the Northwest, around half of our energy capacity comes from dams.
Hydropower’s reliable affordable electricity has also helped grow our economy and create jobs in our local communities. Likewise, dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers allow for marine navigation–creating a river highway. Barging is cost-effective and lower in emissions than truck or rail -- farms as far as the Midwest utilize this shipping method to sell these vital crops across the world. This results in billions of dollars of economic activity, and many farms receive irrigation water from the same river that carries the food they produce.
Our dams also help control for floods, protecting communities throughout the river basin from deadly disasters. And, on a lighter note, the reservoirs provide excellent recreational opportunities–from kitesurfing to cruises. There’s lots to love when it comes to our hydro system!
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What are some drawbacks to hydropower?
While we love hydropower for its many benefits, there are some drawbacks as there are with all forms of energy generation. The construction of dams can disrupt ecosystems, impact fish migration, and change habitats in ways that impact native plants and wildlife. Additionally, in the Northwest, the construction of dams has impacted Native American Tribes and culturally significant sites along the river.
Understanding these drawbacks is a critical responsibility of dam owners and operators. Together, utility customers in partnership with federal, state, and tribal agencies have invested billions of dollars to mitigate for hydropower’s impacts. Those investments have helped increase salmon returns and improve habitat around the region. These efforts are core to the mission of Northwest RiverPartners and our members.
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What is the impact of hydropower on salmon?
ecosystem in the surrounding area. Scientific data demonstrates that hydropower and salmon continue to successfully co-exist in many of our rivers. Further, carbon-free hydroelectric energy has offset countless tons of air emissions and continues to be a climate change solution.
Today, fish ladders allow for upstream passage for spawning adults at many hydropower facilities. To help juvenile salmon make their way out to the ocean, dams incorporate bypass systems, giant slides called spillway weirs, and new fish-friendly turbines. Dam operators work with fish and wildlife officials to implement predation management and different hydropower operations to give salmon the best odds of survival. These measures have helped support increasing returns.
The responsibility of providing mitigation efforts for salmon is taken seriously, and these efforts are helping recovery efforts for salmon populations that are exposed to variety of threats. Those threats extend far beyond our rivers, as climate change and human activities have led to worsened ocean conditions.
Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration–or NOAA, for short–have found that sea surface temperature rise has a major negative impact on salmon mortality. In this way, the clean energy produced by hydropower and its support for intermittent renewables like wind and solar can actually benefit salmon by helping fight climate change.
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What can I do to support hydropower?
Your journey to supporting hydropower can start right here! When you sign-up for our newsletter, we’ll keep you updated on the latest developments on your hydro system and share opportunities to participate in important public processes that influence policy outcomes. Your support is the most valuable resource we have in preserving our access to clean, affordable, reliable energy in the Northwest.
Just head to the top menu here on our site and click or tap "Take Action" to get signed up.
We also strongly encourage you to engage with your local utility provider, many of whom are Northwest RiverPartners members and receive their energy from hydropower.