ADVERTISEMENT
Max Spiker: Using Hydro to Power the Future at the Bureau of Reclamation
S
ince 1902, the Bureau of Reclamation has played a crucial role in bringing water and power to the western United States. Many of the Reclamation dams that provide flood control services or surface water also generate hydroelectric power for millions of homes and businesses. In his three decades with Reclamation, Max Spiker has been at the forefront of the bureau’s hydropower efforts. From his early role as a mechanic to his current position of senior advisor for hydropower and electric reliability officer, he has been involved in maximizing’s Reclamation’s hydropower efforts. In this interview, Mr. Spiker tells Hydro Leader how Reclamation provides hydropower across the West, the advantages of hydro as a renewable energy resource, and Reclamation’s role as a hydropower provider in the future. Hydro Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position. Max Spiker: As of this March, I’ve been at Reclamation for 33 years. I started in college and gravitated to working full time in power plant maintenance, eventually coming to be a hydroelectric mechanic at Hoover Dam. In general, my first 10 years at Reclamation were spent working in power plant maintenance. My second 10 years were spent in management and supervision of facilities. Since then, I’ve spent over a decade in the Reclamation Power Resource Office, which is the agency’s hydropower program office. I’ve worked as a program analyst and as the manager of the Power Resource Office, and currently I am the senior advisor. Hydro Leader: What are your responsibilities in that position? Max Spiker: I lead the oversight of the programmatic functions of Reclamation’s hydropower program—not only the policies, but also the initiatives implemented within Reclamation’s hydropower program to ensure that we produce reliable and cost-efficient power. I work with our customers to ensure that our facilities are maintained at operational and reliable levels to provide the value our customers expect and deserve.
Max Spiker: Reclamation has approximately 5,300 total employees, and approximately 1,600 of them directly support the hydropower program. Hydro Leader: What role does Reclamation’s hydro program play in our nation’s overall power supply?
8 | HYDRO LEADER | April 2021
Max Spiker: Over the past century, federal hydropower generated at Reclamation projects has served project loads, enabling Reclamation to manage western water supplies. The surplus energy that goes beyond project load requirements is marketed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s power marketing administrations, providing Reclamation a steady stream of revenue for project repayment and investment. Today, Reclamation is the second-largest producer of hydroelectric power in the United States. It owns 78 facilities in total. Of those 78, Reclamation directly operates and maintains 53 with its own staff. We call those 53 facilities reserved works. Those 53 facilities account for about 14,700 megawatts of capacity. On average, Reclamation’s reserved works facilities generate about 40 million megawatt-hours of clean and renewable electricity each year. For context, each year Reclamation’s hydropower program displaces over 18 million tons of carbon dioxide that would otherwise have been generated by traditional fossil fuel plants and generates an amount of energy equivalent to the demand of over 3.8 million hydroleadermagazine.com
PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE BUREAU OF RECLAMATION.
Hydro Leader: How many Reclamation employees are directly associated with the hydro program?
Reclamation’s iconic Hoover Dam on the Colorado River.
