Long-term State Water Project contractors depend on the SWP to provide economical sources of power to deliver affordable water. Responding to that need, the Department developed and administers a comprehensive power resources program. Key elements of the program include:

• strategic timing of generation and pumping schedules,

 
• purchase of power resources and transmission services,

 
• short-term sales of power surpluses, and

 
• studies of power resources for future needs.

DWR's Division of Operations and Maintenance and State Water Project Analysis Office work together to carry out this program.

• The SWP Operations Control Office within the Division of Operations and Maintenance is responsible for "real-time" scheduling of water and power and for short-term (up to approximately one year) purchases and sales of power and transmission resources.

 
• The Project Power Management office within SWPAO manages the planning, negotiation, preparation, and administration of all long-term power and transmission contracts necessary to operate the SWP as an interconnected utility.

Three branches of the Project Power Management office share SWPAO's power-related responsibilities:

• The Project Power Planning Branch's responsibilities include:

 
• analyzing and recommending changes to Department policies directly affecting the SWP's long-term power needs, while fulfilling DWR's obligations as an interconnected electric utility within the Western Electricity Coordinating Council system; and

 
• representing the financial and operational interests of the SWP at the regulatory proceedings of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the California Public Utilities Commission, where the financial impacts to the SWP of a single FERC or CPUC order could be in the tens of millions of dollars.

 
• The Project Power Contracts Branch's responsibilities include:

 
• negotiating and administering long-term power purchase, power sale, power exchange, and transmission purchase contracts to acquire the necessary power and transmission resources at the lowest possible cost, within an ever-changing electric utility market and regulatory structure, in order to ensure delivery of SWP water at the most reasonable price; and

 
• verifying and processing invoices for power-related transactions and allocating actual net power costs among SWP power and pumping plants for further allocation to water contractors.

 
• The Oroville Facilities Relicensing Branch's responsibilities include:

 
• facilitating a Department-wide effort to obtain a new license from FERC for the Department’s hydroelectric facilities at the Oroville Complex. The existing 50-year license expires on January 31, 2007, and the application for a new license must be submitted to FERC by January 31, 2005; and

 
• coordinating a total of 72 technical studies that were initiated in 2002 to address numerous environmental, cultural, recreational, land-use, and other issues associated with operating under the new license.

For more detailed information about the Project Power Management office, please read the linked pages. To request additional information, please contact our Chief, George Qualley, or the appropriate Branch Chiefs listed on our “Contact Us” page and on the appropriate Branch pages linked below.