20080620Vol I Boise.pdf

ORIGINAL.BEFORE THE IDAHO PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION
IN THE MATTER OF THE APPLICATION
OF ATLANTA POWER COMPANY FOR AN
ORDER AUTHORI ZING INCREASES IN
THE COMPANY'S RATES AND CHARGES
FOR ELECTRIC SERVICE IN THE STATE
OF IDAHO
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) CASE NO. ATL-E-08-02
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BEFORE
COMMISSIONER MACK REDFORD (Presiding)
COMMISSIONER MARSHA SMITH
COMMISSIONER JIM KEMPTON.
PLACE:Commission Hearing Room
472 West Washington Street
Boise, Idaho
DATE:June 12, 2008
VOLUME I - Pages 1 - 28
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CSB REPORTING
Constance S. Bucy, CSRNo. 187
23876 Applewod Way * Wilder, Idaho 83676
[phone] * [phone]
Email csb(?heritagewifi.com
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1 APPEARANCES
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3 For the Staff:
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For Atlanta Power Company:
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Scott Woodbury, Esq.
Deputy Attorney General
472 West Washington
Boise, Idaho 83720-0074
Israel Ray
Atlanta Power Company
11140 Chicken Dinner Road
Caldwell, Idaho 83406
CSB REPORTING
Wilder, Idaho 83676
APPEARANCES
.1 BOISE, IDAHO, THURSDAY, JUNE 12,2008,10:00 A. M.
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5 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: Okay, let's go on
6 the record. This is the Idaho Public Utilities
7 Commission. All the members of the Commission are
8 present and the date is June 12, 2008, and we are sitting
9 in Boise, Idaho, and this will be a hearing in the matter
10 of the application of Atlanta Power Company for an order
11 authorizing increases in the Company's rates and charges
12 for electric service in the State of Idaho. The case.13 number is ATL-E-08-02. This is a public hearing for the
14 purpose of -- you can't hear?
15 THE AUDIENCE: Barely.
16 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: Well, maybe we can
17 turn it up a little. How about now, can you hear it
18 better now?
19 THE AUDIENCE: Better.
20 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: Good. Okay, the
21 purpose for this hearing is to take public comments in
22 this matter. Let me tell you a little bit about how the
23 procedure works. Today we're going to have Mr. Scott
24 Woodbury who is an attorney with the Idaho Attorney.25 General's Office and who represents the Commission will
CSB REPORTING
Wilder, Idaho 83676
1 COLLOQUY
i.gi ve a brief overview of this matter, especially since we
2 had a late filing yesterday by Atlanta Power. We also
3 understand that Atlanta Power would like to make a brief
4 opening statement as regards this matter, especially as
5 to the late filing.
6 We don't normally do this, but in this
7 case since events seem to be coming in in the last few
8 days or matters have come up to us in the last few days,
9 we'll allow that, but the way it works, also, is we have
10 a list of people who want to testify.If you want to
11 testify, I'll call your name and, if you would, if you
12 could proceed to the witness stand over here to my left.13 and we will ask you your name and also ask you to take
14 the oath for your testimony.
15 If you would please speak up when you
16 testify, if you'll give us your name and your address,
17 then you can go ahead and give your comments. There may
18 be a few questions from the Staff attorney and, of
19 course, the Power Company has a right as well to ask some
20 questions if they want to, and again, it's only for the
21 purpose of taking public testimony, so unless there's
22 anything to come before the Commission preliminarily, I'm
23 going to ask Mr. Woodbury who is the Commission's
24 attorney or the Staff attorney to give us a brief update.25 on where this matter sits as of today.
cSB REPORTING
Wilder, Idaho 83676
2 COLLOQUY
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1 Mr. Woodbury.
2 MR. WOODBURY: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
3 Atlanta Power is located in a remote area of Elmore
4 County and provides electric service to about 75
5 customers. Its power source is hydro.It's not
6 connected to the greater electric grid. In 2007, the
7 Company's hydro turbine was damaged necessitating
8 significant repair costs. In 2007, the Commission
9 authorized the Company to book related costs for later
10 recovery.In early 2008, the Commission authorized the
11 Company to incur debt to pay for turbine repair in the
12 amount of $110,000. The Company has filed a general rate
13 case and a request for an emergency surcharge to generate
14 sufficient revenue to pay for notes of indebtedness.
15 The Company in its application requested
16 an emergency surcharge of 54.2 percent of existing rates.
17 Staff filed comments pursuant to Commission Notice and
18 recommended pursuant to an amendment to its comments a
19 31.2 percent surcharge. The Company filed a reply
20 recommending a surcharge of 39.15. The difference
21 between Staff and the Company's subsequent filing and
22 recommended percentages is a personal note of Alva Green,
23 a difference between 14 and 12 percent interest on the
24 larger note of $100,000 and imputing revenue for two
25 customers; one, the Company's on-site person and the
CSB REPORTING
Wilder, Idaho 83676
3 COLLOQUY
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1 other being some Company property, a trailer and the site
2 of the backup generator and other equipment of the
3 Company, and that's the principal difference between the
4 Staff and the Company recommended surcharges.
5 This is the time set for the Commission to
6 receive customer testimony regarding the surcharges.
7 It's the surcharge only that's before the Commission at
8 this time.
9 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: I understand
10 there's someone from Atlanta Power that would like to
11 make an opening statement.
12 MR. SMITH: Mr. Chairman, Commissioners,
13 and customers of Atlanta Power, just in clarification --
14 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: Who are you by the
15 way?
16 MR. SMITH: I am sorry. I am Robert E.
17 Smi th. I am the consultant for Atlanta Power in this
18 particular case. I am not an attorney.
COMMISSIONER REDFORD: Go ahead.
MR. SMITH: Sorry, Commissioner. Just for
21 clarification, the Company after reviewing many of the
22 customers' comments and discussions with the Staff and
23 problems that they have brought to our attention, it is
24 the Company's intent to file an amendment to its
25 application to restore the seasonal rates that we
cSB REPORTING
Wilder, Idaho 83676
4 COLLOQUY
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1 originally had proposed to eliminate. The intent of the
2 original proposal was to draw attention to the fact that
3 Atlanta Power Company's costs are primarily fixed, that
4 they do not vary with the amount of power that is
5 consumed by the customers.
6 We think that after reviewing the comments
7 of the customers that we need to reevaluate the original
8 recommendation and restore some kind of a seasonal rate
9 and we just wanted to make that clear to the Commission
10 and to the customers that we will be making an amendment
11 to that in that regard. Thank you.
12 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: Thank you very
13 much. If there's no other preliminary matters to come
14 before the Commission at this time, we will move right
15 into the customer or the public statements. The first
16 person that has requested to testify is Alva Green, and
17 if you would please come up and take a seat at the
18 witness table.
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cSB REPORTING
Wilder, Idaho 83676
5 COLLOQUY
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1 ALVA GREEN,
2 appearing as a public witness, having been duly sworn,
3 was examined and testified as follows:
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5 EXAMINATION
6
7 BY MR. WOODBURY:
8 Q Mr. Green, if I could ask you just a few
9 questions to put you on the record here.
10 A I don't mind.
11 Q Will you please state your full name and
12 give your address?
13 A Al va D. Green. What address do you want,
14 my Idaho address?
15 Q Your Atlanta address.
16 A My Atlanta address is 416 Green Valley
17 Lane, Atlanta, Idaho.
18 Q And you're a customer of Atlanta Power?
19 A I think we're the maj or customer of
20 Atlanta Power.
Q And are you also the note holder for one
22 of the notes that we're discussing?
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A That is correct.
Q You may give your testimony.
A Okay. Well, I'm here basically because
cSB REPORTING
Wilder, Idaho 83676
6 GREEN
Public
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1 our electrical bill up there is a maj or part of our costs
2 in the properties that we have. I have been informed by
3 our attorney that the Staff have recommended that our
4 power rate should be no different than the power rates of
S the rest of the power users in Atlanta. Now, we have a
6 lodge. We do invite people to come to our lodge. We are
7 marketing to some extent our facility, but it's mostly by
8 far to family and friends, and we're concerned ör we
9 understand through counsel that the rates that we pay
10 should be the same rate as all residents in that
11 community, and if I understand the rate structure, we are
12 classified as commercial and pay a higher rate even
13 though we have a much higher usage than most of the other
14 people using the electrical power there.
15 Now, I don't know if there's a state
16 statute that says, you know, commercial people should pay
17 higher rates than residential people. Lots of businesses
18 if you're using more of the product you get a lower cost
19 or lower rate than a higher one, and we're also concerned
20 about comparing our costs of last year, according to our
21 accountant and found out just how our electrical rates
22 compared with previous years. Last year, for example, if
23 I get it correctly here, yes, our rate according to our
24 records, the revenues that we paid for power was $13,633
2S for the annual year, calendar year, of 2007, and going
cSB REPORTING
Wilder, Idaho 83676
7 GREEN
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1 back to previous years, the average rate was around
2 $8,500, something like that, for many years.
3 Now, we're not quite sure what caused the
4 difference. We think that maybe it would be a meter
5 malfunction because our basic revenue from what guests we
6 charge -- well, we give family and friends pretty much a
7 free ride, but there are some commercial guests that pay
8 higher rates, but we can't quite understand why last year
9 our rate was almost double what it was the year before
10 and we're saying is consumption a mere problem and we
11 haven't been able to resolve that yet, but we hope we can
12 work that out.
13 Over the years the company -- and I don't
14 own that property personally, it's in a corporation, but
lS it's a family corporation and at my age of 93, I don't
16 have much financial interest in that property, but we've
17 been cooperating as a company with Atlanta Power over the
18 years. My recollection is that when I first acquired
19 that property we were using diesel power, our own
20 generators and diesel power and we decided that when it
21 looked like the community power was more stabilized, why,
22 we should join on, and my recollection is we paid about
23 $30,000 to get the power lines run over to our facilities
24 on the north side of the Middle Fork of the Boise River,
2S and we're grateful to have that power rather than
cSB REPORTING
Wilder, Idaho 83676
8 GREEN
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1 particularly now with diesel prices as it is to have that
2 power available to us.
3 I come with no complaints. We've kind of
4 helped over the years Atlanta Power with some extra
5 funding when they were short on funding to keep things
6 operating and I can't complain about the service and
7 Mr. Ray since he's -- well, when he was a stockholder, a
8 minori ty stockholder, of the Company and now he's a
9 maj ori ty stockholder, we've had a good relationship and
10 we did assist last year in helping him fund the costs of
11 having his turbine rebuilt and that kind of thing.
12 I guess all I'm trying to say is my
13 counsel is telling me, and I want to verify if this is
14 correct, that the Staff has recommended that the rates we
15 pay should be the same rate that all other power users in
16 the Atlanta community are paying and we see that as
17 logical and reasonable and have no question about that.
18 That's basically it. We're glad to be more modernized up
19 there.
20 I have difficulty understanding why with
21 hydro power, and I'm not a technician at all, why
22 hydropower rates are as high as they are; for example, I
23 don't know what the Idaho Power rate is.I lived in
24 Boise for several years. The rate is, what, about seven
25 or eight cents a kilowatt-hour and hydropower is supposed
cSB REPORTING
Wilder, Idaho 83676
9 GREEN
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1 to be rather inexpensive. It i S not a consuming material
2 product and when we pay several times that, you say,
3 well, why are we paying so much higher rates and I don't
4 know anything about your distribution system, but from
5 the source of generation to our property, we're talking a
6 distance at the most of two miles where we i re consuming
7 it and I doubt whether there i s anyone else that is
8 further away from the source of generation unless it's
9 the Atlanta Gold people and they're a minority user of
10 the power up there, at least a minority to us.
11 Anyway, appreciate the opportunity of
12 coming. My permanent home is down in Utah and 11m not
13 here as regularly as I'd like to be or should be, but
14 anyway, we like having public power.I f there are any
15 questions, I'll be pleased to try and answer them.
16 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: Mr. Woodbury?
17 MR. WOODBURY: I have a few questions.
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19 CROSS-EXAMINATION
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21 BY MR. WOODBURY:
22 Did you have any specific commentsQ
23 regarding the proposed surcharge?
24 Well, not really. I personally, IA
2S personally did not really review the application. I
cSB REPORTING
Wilder, Idaho 83676
10 GREEN (X)Public
.1 turned it over to our legal counsel because 11m not
2 knowledgeable enough to really make any good reasonable
3 determination.
4 Q And I think as a statement, you i re a
5 commercial customer under the Company i s permanent
6 commercial customer schedule, Schedule 2, and Staff has
7 not filed any comments regarding the Company's
8 application, except as far as the surcharge, but I
9 haven't talked to your counsel and I'm not sure who he's
10 spoken with, but Staff has no intention of discussing it
11 with them to recommend that you be anything other than a
12 commercial customer and continue as you are presently.13 billed under that schedule.
14 A My principal counsel in Boise is John Ward
15 wi th Moffatt and he's not specifically trained in that
16 phase of the legal profession; however, he did consult
17 with one who is and 11m sorry that I don't have the name
18 of the legal counsel that he used, but the information
19 that came back to me was that the Staff had agreed that
20 our power rate should be no different than the power rate
21 of any other consumer in the community and we thought
22 that was fair and right and should be the case.
23 Q And to your knowledge, is the Company
24 looking into the question of the accuracy of the meter.25 readings?
cSB REPORTING
Wilder, Idaho 83676
11 GREEN (X)
Public
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1 A I understand from our manager that we are
2 and that they're thinking of trying to replace that,
3 yes.
4 MR. WOODBURY: Staff has no further
5 questions.
6 THE WITNESS: Again, I understand that,
7 you know, I guess the surcharge, I don't know whether I
8 can say it's justified or not justified. You know, last
9 year we used a lot of our own diesel generation when the
10 hydro plant was not operating and even though they had to
11 supplement diesel plant for the community, we still were
12 using our -- and the diesel plant for the community was
13 limi ted to time frames and if that didn' t fit into our
14 acti vi ties and interests, why, we turned on our own
15 diesel plant, and so my figure here of the costs last
16 year did not include the extra diesel fuel costs to run
17 our private diesel generators up there.
18 Anyway, I would like the Commission to
19 consider that we pay the same rate as the residential
20 citizens in the community. We're basically not a
21 full-fledged commercial operation. As a matter of fact,
22 we're almost considering that we have no commercial
23 income so that we avoid some of the problems that you
24 have with the difference in commercial and
2S non-commercial, and I might just say, also, the ownership
cSB REPORTING
Wilder, Idaho 83676
12 GREEN (X)
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1 of that property has never been a profitable operation.
2 It's always had to be subsidized from other sources of
3 income.
4 MR. WOODBURY: Thank you, Mr. Green.
5 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: Do you have any
6 questions from Atlanta Power? Well, thank you very
7 much -- excuse me, Commissioner Smith would like to ask
8 you some questions.
9
10 EXAMINATION
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12 BY COMMISSIONER SMITH:
13 Q Thank you for coming. My question is
14 would a surcharge of either the 31 percent recommended by
15 the Staff or the 39 percent proposed by the Company cause
16 you to disconnect your service from Atlanta Power?
17 A No, I doubt it. You know, we appreciate
18 having the service. We i ve had no conflict of interest
19 wi th the ownership of Atlanta Power. We know he IS
20 contributed a lot of time and effort and interests that
21 he may not have been properly compensated for. On the
22 other hand, servicing a small community like Atlanta, all
23 of us, I think, make contributions to the welfare of the
24 community without getting compensation.
25 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Thank you.
cSB REPORTING
Wilder, Idaho 83676
13 GREEN (Com)
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1 THE WITNESS: Thank you.
2 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: Commissioner
3 Kempton?
4 COMMISSIONER KEMPTON: No.
5 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: Thank you very
6 much, Mr. Green.
7 THE WITNESS: Thank you for the
8 opportuni ty.
9 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: You may step down.
10 (The witness left the stand.)
11 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: The next person
12 that's asked to testify is Tracy Hopkins.
13
14 TRACY HOPKINS,
lS appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
16 sworn, testified as follows:
17
18 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: Please have a seat,
19 Mr. Hopkins, and and we appreciate you being here.
20
21 EXAMINATION
22
23 BY MR. WOODBURY:
24 Q Mr. Hopkins, could you please state your
25 full name and spell your last name?
cSB REPORTING
Wilder, Idaho 83676
14 HOPKINS
Public
.1 A Tracy Hopkins, H-o-p-k-i-n-s.
2 Q And are you a customer of Atlanta Power?
3 A I am.
4 Q And do you have an Atlanta address?
5 A I do, 255 Yuba Vista Road.
6 Q Okay, you can give your comments.
7 A Well, I am no expert, obviously, on PUC
8 matters or anything. I mean, we're happy, like Mr. Green
9 stated, to have power up in Atlanta. If you ever drive
10 in there, kind of amazed that you have power back there.
11 The concern I do have, though, is I do own a business and
12 when we make I mean, when we do business, obviously,.13 we're geared to make a profit and those profits are
14 invested in the company to make sure that we're taking
15 care of our customers and I don i t ever know that I can
16 make a capital investment on stock and be able to pass
17 that charge directly to my customers. That comes with
18 the operation of the business via depreciation of
19 equipment or planning for a rainy day or putting away
20 profi ts to maintain the company.
21 You know, in this statement I understand
22 that maybe they didn't raise rates over a segment amount
23 of time and maybe that should have happened for general
24 maintenance, for that rainy day, you know, for the.25 assumption that the turbine could go out someday, and
cSB REPORTING
Wilder, Idaho 83676
15 HOPKINS
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1 like the Greens, I had to run generators to produce power
2 to facilitate our cabin because power was on sometimes
3 and off sometimes and it didn i t seem to hold to a real
4 great schedule. I didn't surcharge anybody for the
5 gasoline and yet, I paid monthly bills for the power, so
6 I'm concerned that, you know, what happens the next time
7 there i s a capital investment. Can you pass that straight
8 on? I mean, are we prepared for a rainy day now? I just
9 don't think it's quite right to be able to pass on a
10 capi tal investment straight to the customer. That i s
11 pretty much it.
12 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: Any questions,
13 Mr. Woodbury?
14 MR. WOODBURY: Thank you.
15
16 CROSS-EXAMINATION
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18 BY MR. WOODBURY:
19 Q Mr. Hopkins, just for clarification, you
20 have a business, but your property up in Atlanta is
21 residential?
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A Yes.
Q And are you a full-time permanent customer
24 or a seasonal customer?
2S A We i re set up as a full-time permanent.
cSB REPORTING
Wilder, Idaho 83676
16 HOPKINS (X)
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1 MR. WOODBURY: Thank you.
2 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: Do you have any
3 questions of Atlanta Power? Thank you. Thank you for
4 oh, excuse me, Commissioner Smith.
5
6 EXAMINATION
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8 BY COMMISSIONER SMITH:
9 Q Thank you for coming, Mr. Hopkins, and all
10 I can say is that a regulated utility does operate
11 probably differently than your business and there's many
12 people here who would probably be happy to explain that
13 to you later. My question for you is the same one as I
14 had with Mr. Green. Would a surcharge of either the 31
15 percent as proposed by the Staff or the 39 percent as
16 proposed by the Company cause you to disconnect your
17 service in Atlanta?
18 A I guess I'd take a look at it. I mean,
19 any time you're looking at how much you spend as compared
20 to alternatives, we'd visit on anything. I mean, I'd
21 look at anything. At this point in time, no.
22 COMMISSIONER SMITH: All right, thank you
23 very much.
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COMMISSIONER REDFORD: Mr. Kempton?
COMMISSIONER KEMPTON: No.
cSB REPORTING
Wilder, Idaho 83676
17 HOPKINS (Com)
Public
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1 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: Thank you very much
2 Mr. Hopkins. We appreciate your coming.
3 (The witness left the stand.)
4 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: The next witness is
5 Merlyn L. Lords.
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7 MERLYN L. LORDS,
8 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
9 sworn, testified as follows:
EXAMINATION
BY MR. WOODBURY:
Q Mr. Lords, will you please state your full
15 name for the record?
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16 My name is Merlyn Lords, L-o-r-d-s.A
17 And are you a customer of Atlanta PowerQ
18 Company?
19 A Yes, I am.
20 And do you have an Atlanta address?Q
21 Yes, I do.A
22 Can you give your address?Q
23 10 Alturas, Atlanta, Idaho.A
24 And are you a residential customer?Q
2S A Yes, I am.
CSB REPORTING
Wilder, Idaho 83676
18 LORDS
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1 Q Are you a full-time or seasonal
2 customer?
3 A Full time.
4 Q Okay, you can give your testimony.
5 A Okay, thank you. I don't know, if I step
6 out of bounds with what I'm saying, somebody stop me.
7 I'm not sure just what you're covering here as far as a
8 whole picture, but some years ago, seven years ago, my
9 wife and I moved to Atlanta. I retired from the Boise
10 Police Department and we found a place up there and
11 purchased it and have been very happy with living there.
12
13
The power has been fairly good. We've had
times when we haven't had power. As far as this rate is
14 concerned, I have a couple of questions. One would be as
15 far as the mine is concerned, there was a substantial
16 amount of work done with the Power Company to get power
17 up to the mine and I would like to know if that is part
18 of this extraordinary expenses that we're going to be
19 paying or if the mine paid for that particular service.
20 The other thing I had was that I think
21 that the rates that have been proposed are extreme in
22 that they are more money that I think should be assessed.
23 First of all, I'd like to make it very clear that every
24 business is entitled to a fair profit, that that needs to
2S be considered and they need to have that profit, but I
CSB REPORTING
Wilder, Idaho 83676
19 LORDS
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1 also would like to make clear that this turbine that went
2 out should have been fixed the year before when we lost
3 power for a week or 14 days, something like that, I don't
4 remember exactly without my notes here, but my wife and I
5 were on our way back up to Atlanta from Boise when we
6 happened to run into the person from the office that had
7 been working on the power up there who advised us,
8 because I knew who he was and had dealings with them
9 through the Police Department and so forth, and advised
10 us that that problem should have been fixed quite some
11 time ago and the problem became extreme because of the
12 lack of taking care of it at the proper time.
13 I really feel that their costs are too
14 much. I think that there are some people, I'm not sure
15 if it's true or not, I'd like to have it verified or not
16 verified, that some people don i t pay for the power, that
17 they have their power connected to doing business with
18 the mine, just like Idaho Power not charging all of its
19 employees power bills because they work for the company
20 or they have some special connection. If that is the
21 case, I think that needs to be changed immediately, and
22 the Power Company is hiring more employees when they are
23 needing to have to consider the amount of money they're
24 spending and the hard times that they're going through.
25 I don't think it's the time to be hiring more people, and
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20 LORDS
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1 if I'm wrong in that case, if they're not hiring anybody
2 else, then I would like to be corrected, but I do know
3 that someone else is reading the meters now that never
4 read the meters before and is involved in that part of
5 the business.
6 I think any other comments that I might
7 have here would probably be related to other things other
8 than the charge itself, so I think that's all I have to
9 say.
10 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: Mr. Woodbury?
11 MR. WOODBURY: I have no questions of Mr.
12 Lords.
13 THE WITNESS: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER REDFORD: Atlanta Power?
MR. RAY: Well, just a couple. In regards
16 to the maintenance on the turbine, I guess you're aware
17 that the turbine is 105 years old and that it had a
18 partial rebuild approximately 23 years ago and, of
19 course, there have been some of the wicket gates that
20 have come loose and we've repaired those as we felt
21 necessary. The bearings on the turbine, we repaired a
22 couple of those, replaced a couple of those, two years
23 ago, but we managed -- they're 100,000 hour bearings and
24 we managed to get double that life out of them.
25 We check the turbine on a regular basis
CSB REPORTING
Wilder, Idaho 83676
21 LORDS
Public
.1 and do the maintenance as best we can.We feel that this
2 repair inevitable 23 The weiring shotwasforyears.was
3 . on the turbine,basically.Yanke's would verify that
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4 we -- it was time for a complete, not just a rebuild, but
5 a redesign of that turbine that we feel that 105 years,
6 it was put in place before the automobile. That turbine
7 was running in Atlanta before the automobile. It was
8 brought into Atlanta on an ox team. We rebuilt it,
9 Stevenson and us rebuilt it, in 1984. When I say
10 rebuil t, we just fixed what was necessary. It was a
11 $16,000 total bill with Yanke's. We fixed it and got it
12 on line and so we feel that nothing happens fast with
13 that turbine. It's a 400 RPM machine. Everything is
14 slow.
15 In my opinion, she was a tough old bird.
16 She ran her course and it was time to redesign the
17 barrel, the wicket gate system. They had come loose to
18 where we couldn i t fix them any longer and that's our
19 position. I just wanted -- that's where we're at
20 there.
21 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: Thank you.
22 Commissioner Smith?
23 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Thank you.
24
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1 EXAMINATION
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3 BY COMMISSIONER SMITH:
4 Q Mr. Lords, the same question I've had for
5 the previous two witnesses, if the Commission approves
6 ei ther the 31 percent surcharge proposed by the Staff or
7 the 39 percent proposed by the Company, would you
8 disconnect your service from Atlanta Power?
9 A I feel the same in answering that question
10 as Mr. Hopkins did. I have been actively engaged in
11 seeking out federal grants and so forth for the green
12 movement that's in effect in the United States today.
13 It's a big deal and I have been looking into some of that
14 and only time can tell the answer to that question,
15 depending on costs and so forth.
16 Q Do you believe that you have off grid -- I
17 mean off you're not on the grid, off Company options
18 up there, I mean solar, wind?
19 A Well, a combination of both, some, but I
20 can't answer the question because I haven't had enough
21 experience in that, but as far as the answer about the
22 turbine, if it's been going out for such a long period of
23 time, why haven't arrangements been made to take care of
24 the problem prior to letting it completely go out, and
25 then the other thing is that the decision making of the
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1 Company in purchasing or bringing up, I believe it was,
2 three different generators, the mistakes that they made
3 in their assesSment and their ability to assess the
4 situation by purchasing or leasing or whatever three
5 different generators to fix it shouldn't be borne by the
6 customer.
7 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Thank you, sir.
8 THE WITNESS: Thank you.
9 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: Mr. Kempton?
10 COMMISSIONER KEMPTON: No.
11 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: Thank you. Mr.
12 Lords, you i ve asked several questions and we do have
13 Staff in the room who after this proceeding might be able
14 to discuss this matter further with you and also you
15 might want to talk a bit with the good folks at Atlanta
16 Power to answer some of your other questions regarding
17 the employees and so forth.
18 THE WITNESS: Well, in regards to that,
19 I've talked to the Atlanta Power Company and, for
20 example, when this power was off and they were turning it
21 on at 6: 00 0' clock in the morning and there weren't
22 people that needed it at 6: 00 0' clock morning, I don't
23 know who needed power at 6: 00 0' clock in the morning, we
24 approached them at that time and asked if they couldn It
25 turn that on two hours later, 10: 00 or 11: 00 0' clock and
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1 they said yeah, they could do that, but nothing ever
2 happened, so lots of people up there threw hundreds of
3 dollars of food away because of the situation and there's
4 no change made on behalf of those people, so I don't know
5 how you can expect anything different when they told us
6 they would and didn't.
7 COMMISSIONER KEMPTON: Mr. Chairman, I
8 have a few questions.
9 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: Mr. Kempton.
10
11 EXAMINATION
12
13 BY COMMISSIONER KEMPTON:
14 Q Mr. Lords, in some of the letters that we
15 received there was a number of times that it was
16 indicated in terms of whether there was power what the
17 quali ty of power was, in other words, 120 volts, whether
18 you have 180 volts, whether you have brownouts. During
19 the time that you did have power on that system, have you
20 had fairly consistent power at 120 volt level?
A No. We constantly have brownouts. We've
22 had times when equipment in the house has just gone to a
23 brownout or blackout where it's completely gone and
24 they'll go down and do something and it's fixed and then,
25 you know, it happens again and I don't know why that is.
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1 I'm not an expert in that area as far as power and
2 turbines and generators and so forth, but we do have them
3 qui te a lot. In fact, we had one yesterday before I
4 left. The lights were flickering and -- not flickering,
5 you know, going down and coming back up.
6
7 EXAMINATION
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9 BY COMMISSIONER REDFORD:
10 Q I just have one question. Do you live up
11 there in the winter?
12 A Yes.
13 Q Can you get in and out of there all
14 winter?
15 A Yes, the Highway District does a
16 reasonable job of keeping the roads open and passable.
17 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: No further
18 questions. Thank you, sir.
19 THE WITNESS: Okay.
COMMISSIONER REDFORD: You may step
21 down.
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THE WITNESS: Thank you.
(The witness left the stand.)
COMMISSIONER REDFORD: That concludes our
list of witnesses. Are there any other witnesses that
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1 would like to offer some testimony? If not, why, we will
2 take this matter into consideration and as regards to the
3 surcharges, there will be a decision by the Commission in
4 due time. Thank you very much, and if there's nothing
5 else to come before the Commission, we'll stand
6 adj ourned.
7 (The Hearing adjourned at 10:45 a.m.)
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27 COLLOQUY
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1 AUTHENTICATION
2
3
4 This is to certify that the foregoing
5 proceedings held in the matter of the application of
6 Atlanta Power Company for an order authorizing increases
7 in the Company's rates and charges for electric service
8 in the State of Idaho, commencing at 10: 00 a.m., on
9 Thursday, June 12, 2008, at the Commission Hearing Room,
10 472 West Washington, Boise, Idaho, is a true and correct
11 transcript of said proceedings and the original thereof
12 for the file of the Commission.
13
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t16ks-t ~..s~17
CONSTANCE S. BUCY
Certified Shorthand Reporter ~1
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cSB REPORTING
Wilder, Idaho 83676
28 AUTHENTICATION