PR 76 05 BONNEVILLE POWER ADMINISTRATION FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, Sept. 29, 2005 Contact: Ed Mosey | , BPA (503)-230-5131     BPA completes substation to integrate big wind project into grid Facility will serve Puget Sound Energy's 83-turbine, 150-megawatt Hopkins Ridge wind project near Dayton,Washington. DAYTON, Wash. - The Bonneville Power Administration has completed construction of the $5 million Tucannon River Substation, which will transmit power from Puget Sound Energy's Hopkins Ridge Wind Energy Project to Puget's customers in western and central Washington. The 83-turbine project is expected to generate 50 average megawatts, enough to serve 50,000 homes. "BPA is using its region wide transmission system to bring power from wind farms to consumers in population centers," said Steve Wright, BPA administrator. "This usually involves construction of new facilities like the Tucannon River Substation. Without efficient, reliable transmission, we wouldn't be able to reap energy from the wind." Blue Sky Wind LLC, Inc is building the Hopkins Ridge Wind Energy Project in Columbia County, Wash. Blue Sky is installing one turbine a day and is on schedule to complete the project this fall with commercial operation by the end of the year. To connect the project to the grid, BPA constructed the new 115-kilovolt Tucannon River switching station near Dayton, adjacent to BPA's Walla Walla-North Lewiston 115-kV transmission line. Power will start to flow from the new Hopkins Ridge Collector substation and the Tucannon River Substation sometime this week. "The remote location of this wind farm posed several challenges both in integrating the project into the Tucannon facility and wheeling power," said Tony Rodrigues, BPA's transmission account executive, who oversees generation interconnection. "This is a good example of excellent cooperation between BPA and Puget Sound Energy to get the job done." BPA now is working on 10 new projects from wind developers to integrate about 1,200 MW into the Northwest grid by end of 2007. For more details on all wind projects, please visit BPA's website. Submitted for distribution on 09-29-2005 at 3:00 PM

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