20231204AVU to Staff 1-2.pdf

AVISTA CORPORATION RESPONSE TO REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

JURISDICTION: IDAHO DATE PREPARED: 12/04/2023 CASE NO: AVU-G-23-08 WITNESS: Patrick Ehrbar REQUESTER: IPUC RESPONDER: Jeremiah Webster TYPE: Production Request DEPARTMENT: FP&A
REQUEST NO.: Staff-001 TELEPHONE: [phone] REQUEST: Please provide any documents, statements and other workpapers, with all formulas intact and
enabled, including source documents, used to calculate actual and estimated costs to restore Natural Gas service to Avista's customers during this unforeseen incident. RESPONSE:
Please see Avista's response Staff_PR_001C, which contains TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY or CONFIDENTIAL information and exempt from public view and is separately filed under IDAPA 31.01.01, Rule 067 and 233, and Section 9-340D, Idaho Code. Please see Staff_PR_001C Confidential Attachment A which is working model that shows
Avista’s current system estimate for the cost of the incident. The attachment includes actual costs
charged to the project as of 11/30/2023, and an estimate for the mutual aid invoice cost from utility and HVAC partners. The full cost of the event will not be known for until all invoices have been received and validated, but the current estimate is $8-10 million. Per utility agreements with the American Gas Association (AGA), mutual aid utility partners have 60 days to send an invoice per
the terms of the AGA mutual aid agreement. Some portions of the internal labor costs are non-incremental, but a thorough working model has not yet been developed. At this time, an assumption has been made regarding the overtime and regular time non-incremental cost. Put another way, we are recognizing that Avista employees that
worked the incident would have worked on other utility work, and therefore charging those employees regular time to this incident is not appropriate. Additionally, the actual costs include costs charged to the payroll accrual for the remainder of November that will be reversed out and replaced with actual payroll costs. These have removed from the summarized cost estimate.
Please note that, in the absence of receiving actual invoices, the mutual aid estimate assumes each utility employee worked 16-hour days and the HVAC employee worked 8-hour days, including onboarding and offboarding. Travel hours and miles are assumed. The utility or HVAC partners will invoice Avista based on the actual hours worked.

In the end, the Company will bear the burden of supporting all of the actual costs of the event, net of any proceeds from claims or proceeds sought from third-parties associated with the Williams dig-in, when it seeks cost recovery in a future proceeding, assuming the Commission approves our deferral request.

RECEIVED
2023 DECEMER 4, 2023 4:10PM
IDAHO PUBLIC
UTILITIES COMMISSION
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AVISTA CORPORATION RESPONSE TO REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

JURISDICTION: IDAHO DATE PREPARED: 12/04/2023 CASE NO: AVU-G-23-08 WITNESS: Cody Lee REQUESTER: IPUC RESPONDER: Cody Lee TYPE: Production Request DEPARTMENT: GFRP
REQUEST NO.: Staff-002 TELEPHONE: [phone]
REQUEST:
Please provide any spreadsheets or documents used to develop response plans, restoration
activities, customer communications, and other measures to respond to this incident. Please include the timeline of this outage from when first notified through completion. Also, please provide updates as to when each step was completed or estimated time of completion.
RESPONSE: Please see Avista's response Staff_PR_002C, which contains TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY or CONFIDENTIAL information and exempt from public view and is
separately filed under IDAPA 31.01.01, Rule 067 and 233, and Section 9-340D, Idaho Code.
Williams Pipeline ruptured:
• On Wednesday, November 8th, 2023 the 1st SCADA Alarm was received by Avista at
12:42pm; Avista called to report alarm to Williams and inquire about alarm at 12:43,
Williams was working to get a technician enroute. We received confirmation from our own Pressure Controlmen and South Region Gas Manager at 1:04pm. See Staff_PR_002 Attachment A for an email string regarding further information about the rupture. Williams High Pressure system shut off:
• Williams closed their mainline valve(s) to control flow. We began losing pressure in the nearest stations at 12:53PM on November 8, 2023. Pullman Gate Station dropped pressure at 1:04PM and Moscow Gate lost pressure at 1:19PM.
Williams Pipeline Repair:
• The repair was complete at approximately 5:30PM on Thursday, November 9, 2023. It then took Williams a few hours to purge and pack the line. Service was restored to the inlet of Moscow Gate Station at approximately 7:30PM on November 9, 2023.

AVA High pressure back online:
• Avista’s High Pressure (HP) was purged and packed in stages from the evening of November 9, 2023 through the evening of November 11, 2023. The first HP came online
at the University of Idaho campus at 7:57PM on November 9, 2023 and the last HP
system came online at Bovill, ID at 7:56PM on November 11, 2023. The early stages of purging/packing the HP occurred separate from the Intermediate Pressure (IP) systems, but towards the end of the EOP event the strategy changed to purging/packing the HP pipelines with the IP systems – therefore Bovill was last to get the HP pressurized.

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Shut-off of all service valves:
• From the order data - First turn off was completed November 9, 2023 – 8:06am; Last
Turn off completed: November 10, 2023 5:28pm. There technically were 14 shut offs completed after that, one on November 10, 2023 at 10:37pm; 11 completed on November 11, 2023 1:48 – 1:52pm, one on November 12, 2023 at 3:08pm, and one on November 13, 2023 at 5:36pm. These were duplicates, requested order created from the field to
dispatch – these were turn offs that were missed/closed in error and found subsequently.
Relight Schedule:
• Pullman region started relights on Friday November 10, 2023 at 2:31PM. The first relights started in Genesee, ID on the evening of November 10, 2023. We also began
purging and packing IP gas systems in Moscow and Pullman.
• Moscow region started relights on Saturday November 11, 2023 at 7:30AM.
• Clarkston region started relights on Saturday November 11, 2023 at 7:00AM
• Lewiston region started relights on Saturday November 11, 2023 at 12:05PM. The high pressure that feeds Lewiston and Clarkston took a while to purge, pack and odorize, which is why the IP relights were delayed. Relights predominately complete date/time:
• Relights were predominantly complete by 8:00 PM on Tuesday November 14. There were a few hundred, primarily in Clarkston that needed to be cleaned up on November 15 that were done by 11:00 AM – these were mainly due to air in the low-lying areas that took more time to purge at individual houses.

EOP formal end date:
• The EOP formally ended at 11:44AM on November 22.
Please see Attachments referencing news releases, social media communication, press
conferences, relight maps, schedules, relight data and estimated restoration time analysis. Staff_PR_002 Attachment A - Williams Pipeline / Lewiston Gas Outage - references news releases, social media communication, relight maps, and meeting notes.

Staff_PR_002 Attachment B - Williams Pipeline Incident Media Briefing Run of Show - Press conference held by Heather and Josh. Staff_PR_002 Attachment C – Thank you media print ad.

Staff_PR_002 Attachment D - EOP Zones and Restoration Strategy Final – This document outlines the schedule and completion of relights by region, relight data and average relights per hour by team.
Staff_PR_002 Attachment E - Relight Teams- This document lists user id information for mutual
aid and hvac contractors. Staff_PR_002C Confidential Attachment A – Natural Gas 2023 EOP activity data. It contains individual names and contact information.