FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Jan. 31, 2022
CONTACT: Philip Reed, mediarelations@wapa.gov, 720-962-7063

LAKEWOOD, Colo. – On Jan. 31, 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 $298.1 million to the U.S. Treasury. WAPA has returned a total of $4.2 billion in the past 14 years. The narrative provides context on WAPA’s fiscal year 2021 reported data and describes the primary drivers and variances between FY 2021 and FY 2020 costs.

Focus areas in FY 2021 included:

  • Continuing safety protocols in response to the COVID-19 pandemic through maximizing telework and limiting travel to mission-essential only. WAPA’s COVID-19 response successfully prioritized safety, reliability and continuity of operations.
  • Completing energy imbalance management transitions for the Colorado River Storage Project, Rocky Mountain, Sierra Nevada and Upper Great Plains-West and selecting a provider for Desert Southwest.
  • Supporting the central U.S. during a historic polar vortex with surplus hydropower and grid services.
  • Facing the challenges of drought and high purchase power costs due to adverse operating conditions.
  • Developing and implementing operational efficiencies.

The impact of these efforts on rates and staffing included:

  • Operations and Maintenance: Decrease of $23 million or 4%.
  • Purchase Power and Wheeling: Increase of $304 million or 94.9%.
  • Capital investment: In collaboration with our customers, current year plant placed in service was $80 million.
  • Authorized full-time equivalents: Did not change from the prior year.
  • Power rates: On a weighted average basis, average rates decreased by 5.3% year over year and declined 4.6% per annum over the past five years.

The site now contains 14 years of information from Oct. 1, 2007-Sept. 30, 2021, 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 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.

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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