Federal Sector

About 5% of BPA's total electric supply goes to power federal facilities around the Pacific Northwest. Federal facilities range from large military bases to small rural post offices, courthouses and office buildings. BPA offers programmatic support to federal facilities seeking energy-efficient solutions. During the past 25 years, BPA's federal energy-efficiency programs have saved federal agencies 39 average megawatts — enough energy to fully power more than 9,600 homes. The programs have also reduced utility bills for federal agencies, saving taxpayers estimated $14.5 million per year.

Federal Sector Opportunities

Energy Smart Reserved Power Program

While these federal sites have no serving utility, they still use Federal Columbia River Power Systems electricity that would otherwise be available for other stories. BPA has a program specifically designed to serve this federal sub-sector.
  • Reserved Power and Station Service Sites: These electric loads have no serving utility. They include the Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation hydroelectric facilities, BPA's transmission substations and other loads that use station service, also known as self-supplied power. Also included in this category are federally established irrigation districts, and a few Fish and Wildfire Service hatcheries that receive power from reserved power. Learn more about Energy Smart Reserved Power.

Federal Energy Efficiency Advisor Program

BPA manages and facilitates energy-efficiency opportunities, in partnership with local utilities, in the federal sector through the Federal Energy Efficiency Advisor Program, or FEEAP. The FEEAP provides resources such as technical assistance, connecting and coordination with local utilities, and energy-efficiency expertise through a federal project's development process. BPA retired the legacy program, Energy Smart Federal Partnership, or ESFP. BPA will no longer provide support with budgeting and packaging projects for third-party financing, including the Utility Energy Service Contract, or UESC. BPA will also no longer support contract and project implementation. The FEEAP assists the following federal sites:
  • Utility Served Federal Sites, or USF: The great majority of federal sites in the Pacific Northwest obtain power from a local utility. The serving utilities include consumer-owned utilities, or COU, and investor-owned utilities, or IOU. BPA targets energy-efficiency efforts toward federal facilities served by COU. Many multi-sited agencies such as the Forest Service or Veterans Administration have both kinds of facilities. COU USF sites may be able to earn incentives for any energy-saving measure in any sector listed in BPA's Implementation Manual. The local serving utility determines specific measure-incentive availability for USF sites.
  • Direct Served Federal Sites, or DSF: A limited number of Pacific Northwest federal sites take power directly from BPA. These are generally places with significant electric loads, including a few military bases and the Department of Energy Hanford site. Each DSF site has an energy-efficiency incentive, or EEI, of its own. The full range of DSF projects is eligible for incentives. Each federal agency with a DSF site has an Energy Conservation Agreement with BPA and maintains its EEI budget.

Learn more about the FEEAP Steps to Savings for USF or DSF sites here. Contact BPA at feeap@bpa.gov for questions and more information on how to participate in the program.