Northwest Energy Review Transition Board John Etchart,
Montana
851 S.W. Sixth Avenue, Suite 1100
Portland, Oregon 97204-1348		 Roy Hemmingway,
Oregon
Phone 503-222-5161 or 1-800-452-5161
FAX 503-795-3370		 Mike Kreidler,
Washington
www.nwcouncil.org/trans.htm Todd Maddock,
Idaho

Transition Board Transmission Work Group
Meeting 14

November 5, 1997

Al Wright chaired the meeting of the Transmission Work Group in the BPA Rates Hearing Room at 911 NE 11th in Portland. The meeting ran from 1:30 to about 3:45, with about 30 people attending.

Angus Duncan opened the meeting by presenting a position paper on FERC regulation of BPA (see his memo on "FERC-Equivalent Regulation of BPA/Transmission). He emphasized the importance of preserving interfunctional loan capability until/unless there is satisfactory resolution on stranded costs. His paper generally leaves more discretion in the hands of the BPA Administrator than the proposals of the Direct Service Industries or the investor-owned utilities (see "FERC Regulation of Bonneville: Strict Equivalence and Tentative Positions on Alternatives"). The group discussed his paper for about 30 minutes.

Next, Brian Silverstein presented the results of BPA’s Surcharge Study. The study estimates that about $200 million per year could be raised from Bonneville’s transmission customers after taking account of those who would bypass BPA’s transmission system, based on a surcharge of about 2.5 mills/kwh. Brian emphasized that Bonneville currently "expects to recover all its power-related costs without resorting to a surcharge.." but believes "it is prudent to develop a cost recovery mechanism in the event it is needed." He said that Bonneville is not advocating a transmission surcharge as the preferred mechanism. See detailed documentation in the form of Word documents and an Excel workbook.

There were a number of questions and comments on this study. Brian offered to arrange a more detailed workshop on the study for those who were interested; there was sufficient interest expressed that Brian said he would go ahead with arrangements for a workshop at our next meeting.

The meeting ended at about 3:45 PM. A presentation of the IOU position on FERC regulation, transmitted to Senator Gorton, was postponed until the group’s next meeting on November 18.