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Home My WebLink About20040126Reply Comments.pdfR. Blair Strong Paine, Hamblen, Coffin Brooke & Miller LLP 717 West Sprague Avenue, Suite 1200 Spokane, W A 99201-3505 Telephone: (509) 455-6000 Facsimile: (509) 838-0007 l~:ECE!VEO ill':~iLEO '7'1111, 1,~L)'1h Iie!JJJ'iJn,,O Hd ' , ".iLl\..- - iT' ;~':':: ('(!' 'ii!C:(~ION, "I ,-l.J ~ II ...; " Attorneys for A vista Corporation BEFORE THE IDAHO PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION IN THE MATTER OF THE PETITION FILED BY IDAHO POWER COMPANY FOR APPROV AL OF MODIFICATIONS TO THE SECURITY PROVISIONS REQUIRED TO BE INCLUDED IN POWER PURCHASE AGREEMENTS BETWEEN ELECTRIC UTILITIES (IDAHO POWER, A VISTA CORPORATION DBA A VISTA UTILITIES , AND P ACIFICORP DBA UTAH POWER & LIGHT COMPANY) AND PURP A QUALIFYING FACILITIES (QFS) CASE NOS. IPC-03- A VU-03- PAC-03- REPLY COMMENTS OF A VISTA CORPORATION TO COMMENTS OF P ACIFICORP I. INTRODUCTION Avista Corporation ("A vista ), by and through its undersigned attorneys respectfully requests that the Commission consider and receive these Reply Comments filed in response to PacifiCorp s comments. In its order dated December 5 , 2003, the Commission in this matter established a comment deadline of January 15, 2004. Avista is mindful of that deadline. PacifiCorp s comments were filed with the Commission on January 15 , 2004, the normal deadline date, and were not received by the undersigned by mail until January 21 , 2004. Therefore, A vista respectfully requests that these comments be received as a reply to PacifiCorp s comments, Avista believes that PacifiCorp REPLY COMMENTS OF A VISTA CORPORATION TO COMMENTS OF P ACIFICORP - comments may inadvertently lead to unintended consequences if adopted by the Commission. II. COMMENTS In Section III of its written comments, PacifiCorp recommends that classes of liability insurance coverage be added to those listed in Idaho Power s Petition and Exhibits, to wit: Automobile liability coverage with limits of $1 million dollars per incident and workers compensation coverage with limits of $1 million dollars per incident. A vista certainly does not dispute the prudence of insurance coverage related to automobile liability and workers compensation.However, Avista normally requires insurance coverage of these types from any PURP A project from which it purchases power, irrespective of whether the PURPA project has contracted to sell at a levelized or unlevelized PURP A purchase rate. The insurance requirements to which Idaho Power Petition only relate are those that secure the financial capacity of a PURP A project to discharge its contract obligation to the purchasing utility purchase contract, when the purchase contract provides for a levelized rate. If property and personal injury liability insurance is added to the schedule of insurance referred to in Idaho Power s petition, then PURP A project developers might conclude that they have no obligation to obtain liability insurance if they elect to receive an unlevelized rate. Allowing PURP A projects to interconnect their generators into a utility electric grid without liability insurance would be an unintended and possibly risky result. Avista submits that it is prudent as a matter of normal business practice to require PURP A projects to provide assurances that they have automobile, workers compensation REPL Y COMMENTS OF A VISTA CORPORATION TO COMMENTS OF P ACIFICORP - 2 and general liability insurance. Liability insurance requirements are normally requested by Avista, because ofthe possibility that the utility, as a purchaser of power from a small PURP A project, may be sued by people who have suffered property damage or personal injury resulting from the PURP A project's activities. Absent such insurance , PURP A projects may be financially unable to defend such lawsuits, thereby compelling Avista to assume the full cost of defense of lawsuits in those instances where both the utility and the PURPA projects are joint defendants. Also, if Avista is a named insured under a PURP A project's liability policies, then the possibility of cross litigation between the PURPA project and Avista is minimized. The Commission has not standardized for all utilities in Idaho the magnitude and structure of property and personal injury liability insurance required of PURP A developers. A vista recommends that the Commission not address such liability insurance requirements in this docket. Each utility should be permitted to negotiate such coverage individually. Each utility may have a different level of liability coverage that it believes prudent. For instance, different utilities may have different self-insurance levels, and may negotiate liability insurance coverage with PURP A developers to coordinate the Purpa project's liability coverage with the utility s self-insurance. Moreover, Avista is not aware of any instance where liability insurance has been an obstacle to reaching an agreement with a PURP A Project.Therefore, it is not necessary for the Commission to address the level and structure of liability insurance. REPLY COMMENTS OF A VISTA CORPORATION TO COMMENTS OF P ACIFICORP - 3 III. CONCLUSION Avista submits that it would be prudent to permit each utility to individually develop its requirements for personal injury and property damage, and negotiate such requirements with PURP projects.The Commission has not, heretofore, required uniform and standardized liability insurance requirements for PURP A developers. It would not be appropriate to deal with personal injury and property damage liability insurance in this docket which only addresses the security requirements for PURP projects that receive payments at levelized avoided cost rates. Other than the foregoing comments with respect to property and personal injury liability insurance requirements, Avista has no objection to the comments of Staff, or PacifiCorp in this matter.Because, A vista s Reply Comments are prompted and necessitated by the comments filed by PacifiCorp, Avista respectfully requests that these Reply Comments be received out-of-time. IV. SERVICE OF FURTHER PLEADINGS Service of further pleadings, and other documents relating to this proceeding should be served upon the following: H. Douglas Young A vista Corporation O. Box 3727 Spokane, W A 99220-3727 Telephone: (509) 495-4521 Facsimile: (509) 495-8856 E-mail: doug. young(f!1avistacorp.com and R. Blair Strong REPLY COMMENTS OF A VISTA CORPORATION TO COMMENTS OF P ACIFICORP - 4 Paine, Hamblen, Coffin, Brooke & Miller LLP 717 West Sprague Avenue, Suite 1200 Spokane, WA 99201-3505 Telephone: (509) 455-6000 Facsimile: (509) 838-0007 E-mail: rbstrong(f!1painehamblen.com -,-?J RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED this -:"" ~ I day of January, 2004. Paine, Hamblen, Coffin, Brooke & Miller LLP By: .--n- ----", ';' / ~ /./1 ,A- / ~ ,vVi-'!./t R. Blair Strong Attorneys for A vista Corporation REPLY COMMENTS OF A VISTA CORPORATION TO COMMENTS OF P ACIFICORP - 5 CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I HEREBY CERTIFY that on the day of January, 2004 I caused to be served a true and correct copy of the foregoing by the method indicated below, and addressed to the following: Ms, Jean Jewell, Secretary Idaho Public Utilities Commission 472 West Washington Street Boise, Idaho 83720-0074 Randy C. Allphin Contract Administrator Idaho Power Company O. Box 70 Boise, ID 83707-0070 US, Mail Hand Delivery Facsimile Overnight Mail Electronic Mail xxxx US. Mail Hand Delivery Facsimile Overnight Mail Electronic Mail xxxx Barton L. Kline Monica B. Moen Idaho Power Company 1221 West Idaho Street O. Box 70 Boise, ID 83707-0070 Mark Widmer PacifiCorp 825 NE Multnomah Portland, OR 97232 xxxx S. Mail Hand Delivery Facsimile Overnight Mail Electronic Mail xxxx US, Mail Hand Delivery Facsimile Overnight Mail Electronic Mail xxxx Dale G. Rasmussen Associate General Counsel PacifiCorp 825 NE Multnomah, Suite 1800 Portland, OR 97232 Colin Persichetti Director, Marketing & Trading PacifiCorp 825 NE Multnomah, Suite 600 Portland, OR 97232 xxxx US, Mail Hand Delivery Facsimile Overnight Mail Electronic Mail xxxx US. Mail Hand Delivery Facsimile Overnight Mail Electronic Mail xxxx REPLY COMMENTS OF A VISTA CORPORATION TO COMMENTS OF P ACIFICORP - 6 Scott Woodbury, Esquire Idaho Public Utilities Commission 472 West Washington Street Boise, Idaho 83720-0074 XXXX US. Mail Hand Delivery XXXXX Facsimile Overnight Mail Electronic Mail 00159418 REPLY COMMENTS OF A VISTA CORPORATION TO COMMENTS OF P ACIFICORP - 7 // --/7 /( -.J tavr~ R. BLAIR STRONG