FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Jan. 29, 2021
CONTACT: Philip Reed, mediarelations@wapa.gov, 720-962-7063
LAKEWOOD, Colo. – On Jan. 29, Western Area Power Administration met its commitment to customers and stakeholders to update The Source with financial and operational information for the past fiscal year, which included returning $272.3 million to the U.S. Treasury, totaling nearly $2.6 billion over the past eight years. This is the sixth consecutive year that WAPA has reported this information on The Source.
“Like every organization around the world, WAPA faced unexpected challenges during FY 2020,” said Administrator and CEO Mark A. Gabriel. “In spite of these challenges, however, WAPA was able to continue providing safe, reliable and affordable delivery of power and transmission services consistent with sound business principles, without interruption. We are proud to update our award-winning Source website with financial and operational data from this unprecedented year.”
The narrative provides context on WAPA’s fiscal year 2020 reported data and describes the primary drivers and variances between FY 2020 and FY 2019 costs.
Focus areas in FY 2020 included:
- Responding to the challenges of COVID-19 by prioritizing safety and reliability with sound business practices.
- Employing asset management, system maintenance and capital investments in WAPA’s transmission system, ensuring safe, reliable power and transmission services.
- Addressing public safety risks through carefully planned asset replacements and vegetation management practices.
- Managing cybersecurity and physical security threats and risks of attack.
- Following regulatory requirements designed to strengthen the electric grid.
- Pursuing operational efficiencies.
The impact of these efforts on rates and staffing included:
- Operations and maintenance: Increase of $1 million, which is 0.07% of the annual operating revenues.
- Purchase power and wheeling: Decrease of $16 million.
- Capital investment: FY 2020 investment of $133 million in collaboration with customers.
- Authorized full-time equivalents: Unchanged from the prior year.
- Power rates: On a weighted average basis, average rates have declined 4.3% per annum over the past five years with an increase of 2.2% year over year.
The site now contains 13 years of information from Oct. 1, 2007-Sept. 30, 2020, including:
- Rates and sales data by power system.
- Federal full-time equivalents.
- Regional and Headquarters expenditures.
- Capital investments by project.
- Returns to Treasury.
A how-to guide and introductory narrative are also available to help visitors find, understand and interpret the data on the site. Both were developed to help users better understand the information and offer up-front answers to expected questions.
The Source website went live in 2016 and offers a one-stop shop for financial and operational information. WAPA partnered with customers to determine data elements and information that would best help them to understand cost drivers and expenditures.
The Source and WAPA’s other transparency efforts were awarded first place in Organizational Transparency by a leading public relations organization in 2018. The site itself received a Gears of Government award in 2019.
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About WAPA: Western Area Power Administration annually markets and transmits more than 28,000 gigawatt-hours of clean, renewable power from 57 federal hydroelectric powerplants owned and operated by the Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and International Boundary and Water Commission in 15 western and central states. It is part of the Department of Energy. Follow us on Twitter @WesternAreaPowr or visit the website at www.wapa.gov.
Last modified on September 12th, 2023