20020219Prehearing Conference.pdf

1 BOISE, IDAHO, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2002, 9:30 A.M.

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4 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Good morning.

5 We'll be on the record. This is the time and place

6 for hearing in Case Number PAC-E-02-01, also referred

7 to as in the matter of the application of PacifiCorp

8 dba Utah Power and Light Company, for approval of

9 changes to its electric service schedules.

10 I'm Paul Kjellander. I'll be the Chair

11 of today's hearing. To my right is Commissioner

12 Dennis Hansen, and absent and excused today is

13 Commissioner Marsha Smith. She will, however, be able

14 to access the full transcript of today's proceedings,

15 and since it is a prehearing conference, I think that

16 she'll be able to catch up and be back up to speed in

17 no time at all.

18 With that, the purpose of today's

19 process is to conduct a prehearing conference for the

20 purpose of reviewing the case status, identifying

21 issues, and establishing further procedures in the

22 specific case.

23 As I recall, we've already dealt with

24 the BPA portion of this; is that correct? And I'll

25 defer to Staff, Mr. Woodbury.

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1 MR. WOODBURY: That's correct,

2 Mr. Chairman.

3 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: So with that,

4 we'll begin with the appearances of the parties. Some

5 of the faces are new to me, and so we're going to

6 start with the newest face, and that would be you.

7 MR. OLSEN: Eric Olsen for Idaho

8 Irrigation Pumpers Association.

9 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Since you are

10 new to the process, we need to inform you how to work

11 the microphone. There's a little flash button in

12 front there, and when the red light's on, you're on.

13 MR. OLSEN: Eric Olsen, Idaho Irrigation

14 Pumpers Association.

15 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Eric Olsen?

16 MR. OLSEN: Uh-huh.

17 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: And are you

18 the attorney representing them?

19 MR. OLSEN: Yes.

20 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Thank you very

21 much and welcome.

22 We'll move over to the left.

23 Mr. Budge?

24 MR. BUDGE: I'm Randy Budge on behalf of

25 Intervenor Monsanto Company.

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1 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: And

2 Mr. Woodbury.

3 MR. WOODBURY: Scott Woodbury, Deputy

4 Attorney General for Commission Staff.

5 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: And let's move

6 to -- I believe it's Stoel Rives. Is that who we have

7 back there?

8 MR. McKENZIE: That's correct. Curt

9 McKenzie for PacifiCorp. With me is John Eriksson,

10 member in good standing of the Utah Bar, has appeared

11 before this Commission on several occasions, and I'd

12 just move his admission for purposes of this case.

13 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Without

14 objection, we will go in that direction. Welcome,

15 Mr. Eriksson.

16 And I see another face to the left, and

17 so we'll move there.

18 MR. SHURTZ: Tim Shurtz, City of Firth.

19 I would ask, Mr. Chairman, that I be allowed to

20 intervene for the City of Firth.

21 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Okay. And

22 there's going to be one other thing that I'm going to

23 say, and I think they may know, but just for the

24 general population here today, please, if you could

25 keep your cell phones off while we're in the hearing

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1 room, that would be a plus for us. However, if we

2 should go off the record and you are all involved in

3 discussions, feel free to crank any technology on that

4 you may have in your possession.

5 And why don't we get your name again and

6 have you spell that for the record.

7 MR. SHURTZ: Tim Shurtz, S-h-u-r-t-z.

8 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: S-h-u-r-t-z.

9 And you are from the City of Firth and you're

10 requesting intervention status?

11 MR. SHURTZ: Yes, I am.

12 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Why don't you

13 give me just a quick overview of your request, then.

14 MR. SHURTZ: I request that I be allowed

15 to intervene. I don't intend to broaden any of the

16 issues that are before the Commission at this time.

17 We also are interested as we also have a franchise

18 agreement with Utah Power and buy our electricity from

19 Utah Power.

20 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Why don't we

21 go to some of the other parties and get a general

22 reaction. Why don't we start first with attorneys

23 representing PacifiCorp.

24 MR. ERIKSSON: I think I would just ask

25 what Mr. Shurtz's position is with the City of Firth.

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1 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Mr. Shurtz?

2 MR. SHURTZ: I'm the city councilman

3 that's been assigned to represent the city over here.

4 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Mr. Shurtz,

5 just for clarification, have you appeared before this

6 Commission before under any other capacity?

7 MR. SHURTZ: Two years ago I appeared as

8 representing the City of Firth again as a city

9 councilman before the merger hearings.

10 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Were you an

11 intervenor in that case?

12 MR. SHURTZ: No, I was not.

13 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: But did

14 testify?

15 MR. SHURTZ: I did testify.

16 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: So you do have

17 some familiarity with our process, then.

18 MR. SHURTZ: Yes, I do.

19 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Thank you. No

20 objection?

21 MR. ERIKSSON: I have nothing, no.

22 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Is there any

23 other party who has objection to intervenor status?

24 None? Okay.

25 Commissioner Hansen, everything fine

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1 with you?

2 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: I have no

3 objection.

4 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: We have no

5 objections, so we'll go ahead and grant the City of

6 Firth, through Mr. Shurtz, intervenor status, and

7 welcome to this case.

8 Are there any other parties that need to

9 be recognized?

10 Okay. Are there any preliminary matters

11 that need to come before the Commission at this time?

12 None?

13 All right. Why don't we see how we need

14 to proceed here. Mr. Woodbury, since I see you in the

15 hallways occasionally, why don't you tell us where we

16 need to go and how we need to proceed, at least your

17 perception, and see if that sparks any interest.

18 MR. WOODBURY: Mr. Chairman, at this

19 time I would suggest that the Commissioners leave the

20 parties to establish a schedule for hearing in this

21 matter and with simultaneous scheduling for settlement

22 negotiations.

23 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: All right.

24 Does that seem reasonable to all of the parties to

25 this case?

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1 Mr. Hansen?

2 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: Well,

3 Mr. Chairman, you got away from me just a second

4 there. I did have a couple of comments I wanted to

5 make on identifying issues that I would like to see

6 brought to discussion in this case.

7 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Please

8 continue.

9 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: First, what effect

10 the two-year rate freeze agreed to by PacifiCorp in

11 the merger would have on this request.

12 Another area I'd like to see addressed

13 is what economic curtailments might have been possible

14 by PacifiCorp rather than purchase of high-priced

15 market power.

16 Another area is what interruptible

17 ability did the Company have during this period of

18 time with their customers.

19 Also, I would like to see a review of

20 all of PacifiCorp's sales of electricity over the last

21 two years or mainly any new contracts or agreements

22 that have been made by PacifiCorp in the last two

23 years that may have had an effect on the native load.

24 And last is was equipment, as was

25 brought out, the loss of the Hunter Plant, and I think

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1 an issue that needs to be addressed is was the

2 equipment at the Hunter Plant properly maintained. I

3 think this is another issue that should be addressed.

4 So these were just some issues,

5 Mr. Chairman, that I would hope would be addressed in

6 this case.

7 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Thank you.

8 And, Commissioner Hansen, just as a point of at least

9 clarification perhaps of my position on one issue, you

10 mentioned the words "rate freeze." And I would just

11 like to note that if that were a rate freeze, then we

12 may have some problem with having established that BPA

13 credit that we just kicked back, so I think we might

14 want to refer to that as the stipulations in the case

15 which in essence restricted PacifiCorp from seeking a

16 rate increase that would have been effective prior to

17 January 1 of this calendar year.

18 COMMISSIONER HANSEN: I think you make a

19 good point there and I think we could handle it in

20 that manner.

21 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: I certainly

22 think the discussion on those issues needs to be

23 brought to the table as you proceed.

24 Any other comments before we go off the

25 record? If not, then, we will go off the record. And

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1 when you guys have completed the process, please come

2 and grab us, and we'd be glad to hear what you have to

3 say and then move forward with regards to this case.

4 So with that, then, we're off the record.

5 (Recess taken.)

6 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: We'll go back

7 on the record. And before we left, we had left the

8 parties to this case to look at some of the original

9 issues and to try to set up a scheduling scenario for

10 this case. So, Mr. Woodbury, would you be willing to

11 bring us up to speed?

12 MR. WOODBURY: Yes, Mr. Chairman.

13 Pursuant to discussion, we've come up with the

14 following scheduling. And this would be settlement

15 discussions initially, which we envision would happen,

16 and any settlement that might result from that would

17 be submitted to the Commission on Wednesday,

18 April 17th. And then Wednesday, May 8th, there would

19 be a hearing and comment deadline, a hearing to

20 provide the Commission the opportunity to inquire of

21 the parties.

22 Also, we've set up a schedule for

23 hearing in this matter: June 7th, Staff/Intervenor

24 deadline; June 28th, rebuttal deadline; an

25 acknowledgment that the parties in between would

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1 attempt to respond to Company's production request

2 with a ten-day turnaround with e-mail answers; and the

3 hearing would be set for Wednesday, July 10th and

4 11th, and this should provide ample time for

5 transcript and Commission order by the end of the

6 suspension date, Wednesday, August 7th.

7 With respect to the identification of

8 issues, in addition to those issues identified by

9 Commissioner Hansen, there is some discussion

10 regarding treatment of irrigators previously

11 interruptible to transition to now firm and a

12 treatment of special contract customers previously

13 jurisdictional to now situs, and also a discussion of

14 whether or not a revenue requirement is at issue.

15 The Company has presented this case as

16 being revenue neutral, but -- so other than the issues

17 identified by the Company and its filing power costs,

18 the rate mitigation adjustment, the rate design and

19 cost of service issues, those are the issues we

20 identify as being present in this case.

21 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Thank you,

22 Mr. Woodbury.

23 Is there anyone who was a party to those

24 discussions who has any additional comment or sees it

25 differently? None?

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1 Are there any other issues that need to

2 come before the Commission today, any additional

3 comments?

4 If not, then we will issue a subsequent

5 order with those dates firmed up by the Commission and

6 you should be receiving that soon. And we certainly,

7 as a Commission, appreciate your participation at this

8 point and look forward to those discussions moving

9 according to schedule.

10 And if I'm not mistaken, then, the

11 hearing dates will be July 10th and 11th, and the

12 Commission will no doubt see all of you here on that

13 date, so with that, we are adjourned.

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15 (The prehearing conference

16 adjourned at 10:20 a.m.)

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1 AUTHENTICATION

2

3 This is to certify that the foregoing

4 prehearing conference held in the matter of the

5 application of Pacificorp, dba Utah Power and Light

6 Company, for approval of changes to its electric

7 service schedules, commencing at 9:30 a.m., on

8 February 19, 2002, in the Commission Hearing Room at

9 472 West Washington, Boise, Idaho, is a true and

10 correct transcript of said prehearing conference and

11 the original thereof for the file of the Commission.

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CAROLE A. WALDEN
17 Certified Shorthand Reporter #71

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