Wind power and water power collide in the Northwest

LA Times
"For the last three weeks, however, many of the wind farms have been ordered to shut down their generation for several hours a day — victims of an unusual surplus of hydroelectric power that has confounded regional electricity operators and infuriated renewable energy advocates who have worked so hard to develop the region's wind bonanza. ......Wind energy advocates say Bonneville could have avoided shutting down wind generators by offering free hydropower to fossil fuel power plants outside its immediate area or even paying them to take the surplus power, as often happens elsewhere in the country in an energy marketing practice known as "negative pricing."

But Bonneville managers, who supply public utilities and a few large-scale industrial customers in the Pacific Northwest with traditionally low-cost power, said that shipping electricity outside its "balancing" area would raise its own ratepayers' costs."