PNCA is an Agreement for Coordination of Operations among Power Systems of the Pacific Northwest signed on September 15, 1964 by the Corps, Bonneville Power Administration, the Bureau of Reclamation, and the major generating utilities in the Pacific Northwest. The Agreement stipulates that "the parties agree to coordinate the operation of their respective Systems ... so as to make available to each System its optimum Firm Load Carrying Capacity, to provide optimum Firm Load Carrying Capability for the Coordinated Systems, and, consistent with these objectives, to produce the optimum amount of usable secondary energy for each System".  It also outlines water storage and power transfer rights and obligations to all the participants to the Agreement. 

    The PNCA Agreement contains the following parts:

• Part I. INTRODUCTORY PROVISIONS

• Part II.  PLANNING

• Part III. OPERATIONS

• Part IV. RATES AND CHARGES

• Part V. GENERAL PROVISIONS

• EXHIBITS

    The signing of the 1964 PNCA coincides with the ratification that same year of the Columbia River Treaty, which assumes coordination among the producers of power in the Pacific Northwest and the Canadian facilities subject to the Treaty. Coordination for the production of power is to take into consideration non-power uses for water resources and must be achieved as a part of the comprehensive development and management of water resources for maximum sustained benefit for the public good.  

    As the owner and operator of the majority of the major hydro-electric projects in the Columbia River Basin, the Corps participated actively and extensively in the formulation of the PNCA. This participation is even more critical today in view of the coordination needed to accommodate the various reservoir system operations required by the many ESA listed species.    

    For more information, go to
    Power System Coordination: A Guide to the Pacific NW Coordination Agreement, February 1993 
    1997 PNCA (conformed copy) signed 06/18/1997