20151202AVU to Staff 7.doc

AVISTA CORPORATION
RESPONSE TO REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

JURISDICTION: IDAHO DATE PREPARED: 12/02/2015
CASE NO: AVU-G-15-03 WITNESS: N/A
REQUESTER: IPUC RESPONDER: Mike Dillon
TYPE: Production Request DEPARTMENT: DSM
REQUEST NO.: Staff-07 TELEPHONE: [phone]

REQUEST:

Please describe in detail how the budget in Table 2: Estimated 2016 Idaho Natural Gas Budget (Application at 9) was developed. Please explain the type of expenses included in each category and how the estimates were determined. Please include all associated workpapers and files.

RESPONSE:

The following table provides additional details about the line items within the estimated budget. The estimated budget for a 2016 Idaho Natural Gas Portfolio was patterned after the 2016 Washington Natural Gas Portfolio.

The total incentives are comprised of the estimated 230,000 therm acquisition multiplied by $3.00 per therm.
The total labor is Idaho’s estimated portion of the current labor costs to deliver Natural Gas Programs.
The total non-labor/non-incentive contains many different costs that can are necessary to operate the natural gas programs including: membership costs, third party implementers, outreach, training/travel and regulatory expenses.
The company is currently a sponsor of NEEA’s regional natural gas market transformation efforts and the $118,782 is Idaho’s portion of Avista’s total sponsorship.
The company is going to be performing a natural gas IRP (CPA) that covers Washington, Idaho and Oregon and this line item would be Idaho’s portion of that study.
There is not currently a line item for EM&V. There will be a 2016 evaluation performed on Washington’s Electric and Natural gas portfolios as well as Idaho’s Electric portfolio, and the future Idaho natural gas EM&V costs are expected to be in the range of 3%-6% of the total budget.