The Bonneville Power Administration, the region’s largest transmission grid operator, will be able to rehire some workers originally fired under President Donald Trump’s federal cutbacks.

Randy Hardy, an energy consultant and former BPA administrator who has written to Trump officials about the dangers posed by the employee cuts, said BPA can rehire about 100 probationary employees.

The decision was made by the U.S. Department of Energy, he said. Gov. Tina Kotek’s office said it was aware of the news but waiting for official confirmation.

BPA also will be exempt from the federal government’s reduction-in-force firings planned for next week, Hardy said.

The reversals come after countless objections from the governor, legislators, utilities and BPA’s former administrators, among others.

They also follow a federal judge’s ruling last week that Trump directives telling federal agencies to fire their probationary employees were illegal.

BPA insiders said the large loss of workers — including essential workers such as dispatchers and schedulers — could have undermined the agency’s ability to run the grid in the Pacific Northwest and led to blackouts in the region.

“The Department of Energy has done what they could to restore some sanity and order to this whole affair and permit Bonneville to get back to a fully operational status,” said Hardy.

The return of probationary workers still leaves BPA short 230 other workers — 10% of the workforce: 125 who took the Trump administration buyouts and 105 taking early retirement.

In addition, BPA also has rescinded 90 new job offers and continues to be under a hiring freeze, meaning it not only can’t hire new workers but can’t rehire those who took early retirement.

BPA, part of the U.S. Department of Energy, owns and operates 15,000 miles — 75% — of the Northwest’s high-voltage transmission lines. It markets hydropower from 31 federal dams in the Columbia River Basin and supplies a third of Northwest electricity.