PAYING FOR WIND NOT YET ON LINE; Delays hit Portland contract

1 May 1996

In August the city of Portland began an unprecedented five year contract to buy the equivalent of about $60,000 worth of wind power a year from local utility Portland General Electric but, since all the wind projects planned in the Northwest are behind schedule, there is no wind power to buy. The wind power must be from a new project. If no wind is built by the year 2000, when the contract ends, PGE will have to refund the extra that the city has paid.