Bonneville, Power Administration Timing System

Abstract : The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) is a power marketing agency for the U.S. Federal government. It was established to market power from the federal dams being constructed on the Columbia River and has evolved into the major bulk power supplier in the Pacific Northwest. BPA sells power produced at Federal generating facilities, coordinates the Columbia river hydro system, and transmits power for other utilities. Time is an integral part of BPA's operational systems. Generation and power transfers are planned in advance. Utilities coordinate with each other by making these adjustments on a timed schedule. Price varies with demand, so billing is based on time. Outages for maintenance are scheduled to assure they do not interrupt reliable power delivery. Disturbance records are aligned with recorded timetags for analysis and comparison with related information. Advanced applications like traveling wave fault location and real-time phase measurement require continuous timing with high precision. Most of BPA is served by a Central Time System (CTS) at the Dittmer Control Center near Portland, OR. This system keeps time locally and supplies time to both the control center systems and field locations via a microwave system. It is kept synchronized to national standard time and coordinated with interconnected utilities. It is the official BPA time. There are a few BPA applications which are not served by the CTS.