20150728AVU to Staff 12.doc

AVISTA CORPORATION
RESPONSE TO REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

JURISDICTION: IDAHO DATE PREPARED: 07/21/2015
CASE NO.: AVU-E-15-05/AVU-G-15-01 WITNESS: Karen Schuh
REQUESTER: IPUC RESPONDER: Margie Stevens
TYPE: Production Request DEPARTMENT: Finance
REQUEST NO.: Staff - 012 TELEPHONE: [phone]

REQUEST:

Please provide a matrix identifying the major capital expenditure approval levels that includes the dollar level of authorization by employee title, division and company. Please include within your response the dollar level at which individual capital expenditure projects require approval by the Board of Directors or highest threshold available.

RESPONSE:

The Capital Planning Group (CPG), comprised of eight director-level employees from across the organization, is responsible for prioritizing capital expenditures, allocating funds and ultimately developing a recommended five-year capital plan. This five-year capital plan is discussed in detail with the Officer group and once agreement regarding funding is reached it is finalized for submittal to the Finance Committee of the Board of Directors. Through this process the Officers are approving all funding through approval of the overall plan. The Board Finance Committee reviews the plan and also approves funding of the individual projects and programs by approval of the overall plan. The Officers have delegated the CPG authority to make reallocations throughout the year to accommodate revisions and new projects to the extent that the total approved capital budget is not exceeded. Any new projects over $10 million that were not part of the original approved plan need to be approved by the Finance Committee of the Board.

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