John Hairston, who has served as the administrator of Bonneville Power Authority for the past five years and led recent efforts to modernize and expand its transmission infrastructure and operations, has announced his retirement. 

Hairston, who has more than three decades of public service within BPA, has not said when he will leave the role. The U.S. Department of Energy is actively in the process of selecting the next BPA administrator to ensure a smooth transition, according to a release. 

“From the beginning of my tenure as administrator, I have thrived only because I could depend upon the professionalism, skill and resilience of the best federal workforce I have ever encountered,” Hairston said in a statement. “We are a workforce of serious people capable of solving serious challenges. As we navigated turbulence, that capability proved stronger than ever. I have complete confidence in the Bonneville workforce and in our current leadership to guide BPA to continued success on behalf of our customers and the region.”    

Hairston’s tenure as the agency’s top leader began in an acting capacity during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic during the first Trump administration.  

Among some of BPA’s most significant milestones since he took the helm: 

• Identified more than $6 billion in grid reinforcement and expansion projects, including several in the Mid-Columbia such as the South of Tri-Cities Reinforcement Project. That project includes the installation of a new 18-mile 115-kilovolt transmission line and substation between the agency’s existing Badger Canyon Substation and the Ashe-Marion 500-kilovolt transmission line to the west as well as other improvements that installed larger power poles and higher voltage lines through the heart of Richland.  
• On the power generation side, BPA partnered with Energy Northwest in a $700 million deal to upgrade the nuclear-powered Columbia Generating Station over the next several refueling cycles to produce enough additional energy to power 125,000 homes. 
• Supported the agency’s movement toward a “day-ahead” energy market structure via Southwest Power Pool’s Markets+, a move BPA officials and supportive public power agencies have said would provide the most efficiency and equity among its power users. That decision is currently being challenged in federal court on claims it violated  federal energy and environmental laws and will have significant impacts on utilities, energy consumers and the environment. 
• Oversaw the implementation of new wholesale power sales agreements with BPA’s 134 public power utilities, which include the Benton and Franklin public utility districts and Benton Rural Electric Association. The new contracts are anticipated to provide some certainty for utilities’ operations and their customers’ future energy bills. However, the utility will have to raise rates via a $40 million surcharge on power provided to the various community power providers across the Pacific Northwest due to one of its divisions ending the last fiscal year with too low financial reserves. 

“John Hairston’s decades of leadership at the Bonneville Power Administration have strengthened the foundation of public power across the Northwest,” said Bob Schuetz, CEO of Energy Northwest, in a statement. “His support for Energy Northwest’s mission, along with his commitment to operational excellence and regional collaboration, has been instrumental in advancing reliable, affordable and carbon free power for the communities we serve.”