20100427IPC to Staff 1-6.pdf

DONOVAN E. WALKER
Senior Counsel
dwalker(idahopower.com
esIDA~POR~
An IDACORP Company
April 26., 2010
VIA HAND DELIVERY
Jean D. Jewell, Secretary
Idaho Public Utilities Commission
472 West Washington Street
P.O. Box 83720
Boise, Idaho 83720-0074
Re: Case No. IPC-E-10-06
ADVANCED METERING INFRASTRUCTURE ("AMI'1 INVESTMENT IN
RATE BASE
Dear Ms. Jewell:
Enclosed for filing please find an original and three (3) copies of Idaho Power
Company's Response to the First Production Request of the Commission Staff in the
above matter.
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DEW:csb
Enclosures
P.O. Box 70 (83707)
1221 W. Idaho St.
Boise, ID 83702
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DONOVAN E. WALKER (ISB No. 5921)
LISA D. NORDSTROM (ISB No. 5733)
Idaho Power Company
1221 West Idaho Street
P.O. Box 70
Boise, Idaho 83707
Telephone: [phone]
Facsimile: [phone]
dwalkerOCidahopower.com
InordstromOCidahopower.com
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Attorneys for Idaho Power Company
Street Address for Express Mail:
1221 West Idaho Street
Boise, Idaho 83702
BEFORE THE IDAHO PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION
IN THE MATTER OF THE APPLICATION OF )
IDAHO POWER COMPANY FOR ) CASE NO. IPC-E-10-06
AUTHORITY TO INCREASE ITS RATES )
DUE TO THE INCLUSION OF ADVANCED ) IDAHO POWER COMPANY'S
METERING INFRASTRUCTURE ("AMI") ) RESPONSE TO THE FIRST
INVESTMENT IN RATE BASE. ) PRODUCTION REQUEST OF THE
) COMMISSION STAFF TO IDAHO
) POWER COMPANY
)
COMES NOW, Idaho Power Company ("Idaho Powet' or the "Company"), and in
response to the First Production of Request of the Commission Staff to Idaho Power
Company dated April 14, 2010, herewith submits the following information:
IDAHO POWER COMPANY'S RESPONSE TO THE FIRST PRODUCTION
REQUEST OF THE COMMISSION STAFF TO IDAHO POWER COMPANY - 1
REQUEST NO.1: Please provide all workpapers supporting the testimony,
attachments, and exhibits in this case including all Excel files with formulas intact.
RESPONSE TO REQUEST NO.1: Please see the Excel file provided on the
enclosed CD that includes Witness Waites' exhibits in Excel format as well as a
workpaper supporting the Company's actual net plant value of the existing metering
equipment as of May 31, 2009.
The response to this Request was prepared by Courtney Waites, Pricing Analyst,
Idaho Power Company, in consultation with Donovan E. Walker, Senior Counsel, Idaho
Power Company.
IDAHO POWER COMPANY'S RESPONSE TO THE FIRST PRODUCTION
REQUEST OF THE COMMISSION STAFF TO IDAHO POWER COMPANY - 2
REQUEST NO.2: Please provide a copy of the most recent AMI implementation
plan showing installation areas and equipment.
a. The Commission is aware of the delayed OMS integration in the Capital
region. Please provide a status update on this matter and other deviations from the
original implementation plan, if any.
b. Please provide detailed information on any changes, problems, or issues
the Company encountered so far during the implementation of AMI, if any.
RESPONSE TO REQUEST NO.2: Below is a summary of the AMI
implementation plan showing installation areas and equipment. The project continues
to run on schedule:
2008
- Construction in 4 Capital Region Substations
- Material procurement and logistics planning
2009
- Construction in 23 Capital and 4 Canyon Regions Substations
- Exchange of 157,000 meters in Capital Region
2010
- Construction in 42 Canyon/Payette Regions, Mountain Home
Operating Area, and 8 Eastern Region Substations
- Exchange of 150,000 meters in Canyon/Payette Regions and
Mountain Home Operating Area
2011
- Implement OMS Integration
- Construction in 14 Eastern and 44 Southern Region Substations
- Exchange of 144,000 meters in Eastern and Southern Regions
a. Idaho Power has received a stimulus grant to replace its Outage
Management System ("OMS"). Idaho Power was scheduled to interface its Advanced
Metering Infrastructure ("AMI") for the Ada and Boise County areas with its current OMS
IDAHO POWER COMPANY'S RESPONSE TO THE FIRST PRODUCTION
REQUEST OF THE COMMISSION STAFF TO IDAHO POWER COMPANY - 3
system in 2010. However, in light of the OMS replacement scheduled for 2011, it was
deemed prudent to wait and integrate AMI and OMS during the upgrade in 2011.
b. There have been a couple minor issues related to the deployment, none of
which are significantly impacting the schedule or implementation costs. The Company
is stil on schedule for the original 3 year implementation plan. Below is a summary of
the minor issues the Company has experienced:
1. The Company has repaired 192 customer meter bases as of March
31, 2010. These bases had existing issues that were discovered during the meter
exchange. Idaho Power had projected about a 1 in 1 ,000 failure rate.
2. The Company has had a 2 percent in-service failure rate on the
communications module within its commercial meters. The failure is a result of a faulty
connection in the module and affects meter communications, not accuracy or billng.
The Company's projection was a 1 percent failure rate. The manufacturer has
corrected the defect in modules produced after December 2009 and has extended the
warranty on the modules received prior to December 2009 from 3 to 5 years. Idaho
Power is inspecting 100 percent of the commercial meters for the defect prior to
installation and feels the issue is now contained and the measures in place should
minimize any impact on customers or project costs.
3. There have been a few incidents in the press where misleading
information has been published about smart meters in general. As a result, Idaho
Power has had a few customers who do not want smart meters installed because of
what they have seen in the news. The Company is working with those customers to
IDAHO POWER COMPANY'S RESPONSE TO THE FIRST PRODUCTION
REQUEST OF THE COMMISSION STAFF TO IDAHO POWER COMPANY - 4
assure them the smart meters are accurate, safe, and their data wil be secure. Idaho
Power is working on a mutually agreeable resolution case by case.
The response to this Request was prepared by Mark Heintzelman, AMI Project
Leader, and Courtney Waites, Pricing Analyst, Idaho Power Company, in consultation
with Donovan E. Walker, Senior Counsel, Idaho Power Company.
IDAHO POWER COMPANY'S RESPONSE TO THE FIRST PRODUCTION
REQUEST OF THE COMMISSION STAFF TO IDAHO POWER COMPANY - 5
REQUEST NO.3: Company witness Courtney Waites states that, "The
Company continues to run slightly ahead of scheduled installations and equipment
orders." Waites' testimony, p. 7.
a. Please quantify the amount (number and dollars) of station equipment the
Company has received and is going to receive during the test year.
b. Please provide a comparison of this quantity to the required number of
station equipment for the full deployment of AMI. What percentage of the entire project
does this equipment represent?
RESPONSE TO REQUEST NO.3:
a. The Substation Control Equipment ("SCE") installed from January 1,2010,
through March 31, 2010, is $1.7 milion, which covers 9 substations. The Company
anticipates another $2.6 milion of SCE expenditures from April 1, 2010, through
December 31, 2010, which wil commission an additional 33 substations in 2010.
b. The Company anticipates approximately 135 substation upgrades by the
end of 2011. Assuming all 42 substations are completed in 2010, this would represent
a project completion rate of 47 percent of the overall stations implementation and 31
percent in 2010.
The response to this Request was prepared by Courtney Waites, Pricing Analyst,
Idaho Power Company, in consultation with Donovan E. Walker, Senior Counsel, Idaho
Power Company.
IDAHO POWER COMPANY'S RESPONSE TO THE FIRST PRODUCTION
REQUEST OF THE COMMISSION STAFF TO IDAHO POWER COMPANY - 6
REQUEST NO.4: Please provide the actual numbers to date for the AMI meters
installed and to be installed during the test year, actual dollar amount of capital
investment and the actual O&M costs. Please provide supporting documents.
RESPONSE TO REQUEST NO.4: As of March 31, 2010, the Company has
installed 209,334 AMI meters in Boise and Ada Counties, of which about 200,000 were
converted to the automated meter reading processes. The Company is now working on
installations in Canyon County and estimates an additional 108,000 installations by the
end of 2010.
Meter purchases to date include a two-month operating supply to insulate the
project from any supply chain issues and accommodate the peaks and valleys that wil
invariably occur in meter exchange rates related to weather and customer density. All
costs related to AMI meter installations, including labor, are capitalized.
The following is a summary of the total investment in meters as of March 31,
2010:
Actual.. YTD
B006 21 - Phase
Meters
B00600021 - Phase 2
Mete
B006
Meters
Grand Total
Total $ 1,491,608
$16,873,112
$ 4,094,692
$ 22,459,412
201
The response to this Request was prepared by Mark Heintzelman, AMI Project
Manager, and Courtney Waites, Pricing Analyst, Idaho Power Company, in consultation
with Donovan E. Walker, Senior Counsel, Idaho Power Company.
IDAHO POWER COMPANY'S RESPONSE TO THE FIRST PRODUCTION
REQUEST OF THE COMMISSION STAFF TO IDAHO POWER COMPANY - 7
REQUEST NO.5: The Company is proposing to spread the revenue
requirement for AMI across the service charge and demand charge in addition to the
energy charge for Schedule 9 secondary and 24 secondary service.
a. Please provide a justification for the Company's proposaL.
b. Please provide workpapers supporting the calculation of the proposaL.
RESPONSE TO REQUEST NO.5:
a. The Company's proposal to spread the revenue requirement for AMI was
a policy decision made to align methodologies between all filngs the Company made
with the Idaho Public Utilties Commission requesting a June 1, 2010, effective date.
Spreading the revenue requirement across the Service Charge and Demand Charge in
addition to the Energy Charge for Schedule 9 secondary and 24 secondary is consistent
with the proposed revenue requirement spread in Case No. IPC-E-10-08, Application of
Idaho Power Company to Increase its Rates for Electric Service to Recover its 2010
Cash Contribution to Defined Benefit Pension Expense. It is also consistent with the
revenue requirement spread agreed upon in the Stipulation (see paragraph 7.2.1.1 )in
Case No. IPC-E-09-30, Application of Idaho Power Company for an Accounting Order
to Amortize Additional Accumulated Deferral Income Tax Credits an Order Approving a
Rate Case Moratorium, which approves a proposal to change base rates effective June
1, 2010, as welL.
b. Please see the attached workpapers (included on the enclosed CD)
supporting the calculation of the proposal to spread the revenue requirement for AMI.
IDAHO POWER COMPANY'S RESPONSE TO THE FIRST PRODUCTION
REQUEST OF THE COMMISSION STAFF TO IDAHO POWER COMPANY - 8
The response to this Request was prepared by Courtney Waites, Pricing Analyst,
Idaho Power Company, in consultation with Donovan E. Walker, Senior Counsel, Idaho
Power Company.
IDAHO POWER COMPANY'S RESPONSE TO THE FIRST PRODUCTION
REQUEST OF THE COMMISSION STAFF TO IDAHO POWER COMPANY - 9
REQUEST NO.6: Please provide information as to when the Company
exchanged the master meter for Schedule 3 and meters for Schedule 41 - Mercury
Vapor customers to AMI meters and how many are installed and how many are left to
be exchanged for these customer classes.
RESPONSE TO REQUEST NO.6: As of April 21, 2010, 7 Schedule 3 AMI
meters have been installed and 103 Schedule 41 metered AMI meters have been
installed in Idaho. The Company expects another 15 Schedule 3 AMI meter
installations and another 46 Schedule 41 metered AMI meter installations. Please see
the chart below for a summary of these installations by area.
American Falls 1
Blackfoot 1
Boise 88
Canyon Operation 31
Center
Emmett 1 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 2
Gooding, Fairfeld 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 4 4
Hailey 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1
Jerome 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 3 3
McCall 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1
Mini-Cassia 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1
Mtn Home, GI Ferry 0 0 0 0 7 0 0 7 7
Payette Idaho 0 0 0 0 0 0 12 12 12
Twin Falls, Buhl 0 0 0 0 4 2 13 19 19
Total 7 1 102 110 15 4 42 61 171
The response to this Request was prepared by Mark Heintzelman, AMI Project
Manager, and Courtney Waites, Pricing Analyst, Idaho Power Company, in consultation
with Donovan E. Walker, Senior Counsel, Idaho Power Company.
DATED at Boise, Idaho, thls 26th day of April 2010.wvL
DONOVAN E. WALKER
Attorney for Idaho Power Company
IDAHO POWER COMPANY'S RESPONSE TO THE FIRST PRODUCTION
REQUEST OF THE COMMISSION STAFF TO IDAHO POWER COMPANY - 10
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
I HEREBY CERTIFY that on this 26th day of April 2010 I served a true and
correct copy of the foregoing IDAHO POWER COMPANY'S RESPONSE TO THE
FIRST PRODUCTION REQUEST OF THE COMMISSION STAFF TO IDAHO POWER
COMPANY upon the following named parties by the method indicated below, and
addressed to the following:
Commission Staff
Scott Woodbury
Deputy Attorney General
Idaho Public Utilities Commission
472 West Washington
P.O. Box 83720
Boise, Idaho 83720-0074
.. Hand Delivered
U.S. Mail
_ Overnight Mail
FAX
.. Email Scott.Woodburvcapuc.idaho.gov
c6'lt¡cL
Donovan E. Walker
IDAHO POWER COMPANY'S RESPONSE TO THE FIRST PRODUCTION
REQUEST OF THE COMMISSION STAFF TO IDAHO POWER COMPANY - 11