20080331Westerfield Qualifications.pdf

QUALIFICATIONS STATEMENT OF
LOU ANN WESTERFIELD
Witness for the Idaho Public Utilities Commission
Please state your name, employer, and business address.
My name is Lou Ann Westerfield. My employer is the Idaho Public Utilities
Commission (IPUC), 472 W. Washington, Boise, Idaho, 83702.
In what capacity are you employed?
I am a Policy Strategist for the IPUC. I advise the commissioners on issues affecting
regulated utilities in Idaho.
What is your educational background?
I received a RA. in English from Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, in 1976 and an
S. in Accounting from the University of Arkansas in 1982.
Please summarize your professional experience.
I have worked in utility regulation since 1988. Since 2000 , I have held my current
position as a policy strategist with the IPUc. I was a rate analyst for the Wyoming Public
Service Commission (WPSC) from 1995 to 2000. I was a senior policy analyst and a rate
analyst for the Arkansas Public Service Commission (APSC) from 1988 to 1995. Prior to
my work experience in utility regulation, I worked for five years as an internal auditor
and financial analyst for two municipal utilities.
What professional training have you received?
I have attended regulatory schools in ratemaking principles, power plant systems
forecasting, real-time pricing, integrated resource planning, financial analysis, and
negotiation.
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Witness: Lou Ann Westerfield
What are your responsibilities as a Policy Strategist for the IPUC?
I am responsible for advising the commissioners on energy policy issues affecting the
Idaho electric and gas industries and electric and gas public utilities in particular. I also
participate on behalf of the commission in state, regional, and national forums on energy
issues. These issues include, but are not limited to, resource planning, adequacy, and
procurement, reliability, customer resources, energy price and supply volatility,
renewable resource development, wind integration, generation interconnection, regional
transmission coordination, hydroelectric relicensing, wholesale market monitoring, inter-
jurisdictional cost allocations, and public utility mergers. I advise the commission on the
impact of federal law and agency decisions pertaining to Idaho s utilities, including state
implementation requirements. I advise the commission on participation in Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) rulemakings and cases and am responsible for
preparing analyses, recommendations, and comments for the IPUC on these cases. I also
provide analyses and recommendations on issues contained in IPUC cases. I also work
with other states and stakeholders on regional and national issues affecting the electric
utility industry. Finally, I participate in various professional organizations listed below.
Are you responsiblefor advising the IPUC concerning the Bonneville Power
Administration (BP A)?
Yes. Since 2004, I have been responsible for providing analyses and recommendations to
the IPUC on BPA's Residential Exchange Program (REP) and other BPA proceedings.
Additionally, I represented the IPUC on the Regional Representatives Group for the
RTO West/Grid West effort from 2001 to 2005 , an effort to establish coordinated grid
operations and management in the Northwest. BP A, along with the three Idaho
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Witness: Lou Ann Westerfield
regulated electric utilities - Idaho Power, A vista, and PacifiCorp - participated in this
effort.
Do you belong to any professional organizations related to your job?
Yes. The following is a list of those organizations:
National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), 1989 - present
Staff Subcommittee on Electricity, 1989 - present; Chair, 2000 - 2003
Model Interconnection Agreement & Procedures, Lead Staff, 2002 - present
. NARUC/FERC Collaborative on Competitive Procurement, 2007 - present
Transmission Access and Market Rules Working Group, Lead Staff, 2005 -
present
Committee on Regional Electric Power Cooperation, 1996 - present
Market Monitoring Work Group, Chair, 2003 - present
Northern Tier Transmission Group, 2007 - present
Cost Allocation Committee, Chair
Management Committee
Western Electricity Coordinating Council , 2006 - present
Market Interface Committee Steering Committee, Market Interface Committee
Market Issues Subcommittee
North American Energy Standards Board
Executive Committee, Wholesale Electric Quadrant, State Regulatory Segment
Representative on behalf ofNARUC , 2002 - present
Advisory Council , 2001 - present
Demand Side Management and Energy Efficiency Task Force, 2007 - present
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Witness: Lou Ann Westerfield
North American Electric Reliability Corporation
Standards Committee, State Regulatory Representative, 2007 - present
Please state your experience as a witness in previous proceedings.
I testified on behalf of the consumer advocate staff in five merger cases before the
WPSC. Three of these cases involved inter-jurisdictional costs and savings allocations
among subsidiaries or divisions of electric public utility holding companies. In these
cases , I testified on these allocations, projected merger benefits, corporate structure
diversification, impact of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 on state
actions, and the accounting issues of cross subsidization and affiliate transactions. I also
testified on accounting, financial, cost of service, rate design, and power cost issues in
electric and telecommunications rate and other cases before the WPSC. To prepare such
testimony, I used and designed computer models to analyze long-term financial and
economic outcomes, performed financial analyses of earnings, and audited books and
records of the utilities.
While employed by the APSC, I testified before the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission (FERC) and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
in two electric utility merger cases - Entergy/Gulf States Utilities and the failed Central
and South West/El Paso Electric mergers. In the FERC proceeding on the Entergy/Gulf
States merger, I testified on the projected merger benefits attributed to power systems
integration and planning and on the inter-jurisdictional allocation of production costs
pursuant to Entergy s System Agreement (a FERC tariff that allocates these costs to five
state jurisdictions). For both mergers, I filed affidavits with the SEC on projected merger
benefits , inter-jurisdictional cost allocations, cross-subsidization, and affiliate transaction
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Witness: Lou Ann Westerfield
Issues. I also testified in cases before the APSC on the long-term financial and rate
impact of electric utility proposals to build or sell generation plants. Finally, because all
of the electric utilities regulated by the APSC conducted business with the Southwestern
Power Administration (SWP A), a federal power marketing agency, I prepared technical
analysis and recommendations for comments filed by the APSC in an SWP A rate case
(FERC Docket No. EF91-4011).
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Witness: Lou Ann Westerfield