Heavy spring rain has forced the Bonneville Power Administration to give away some surplus hydropower, reduce generation at other power plants and fill reservoirs for migrating fish.
The late rain has challenged BPA managers, who were issuing warnings about summer water shortages just a month ago.
Precipitation levels jumped to 700 percent of normal in some areas of the Snake River Basin and 170 to 200 percent of normal on the upper Willamette River.
During the last few days, the 31 federally operated hydroelectric dams in the Northwest have been running full tilt, generating an average of 13,000 megawatts of electricity.
The power boost is 144 percent of normal spring generation — the equivalent of adding four nuclear plants worth of electricity.
