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Home My WebLink About20050912Answer to IPC petitions.pdfDean J. Miller ISB #1968 McDEVITI & MILLER LLP 420 West Bannock Street O. Box 2564-83701 Boise, ill 83702 Tel: 208.343.7500 Fax: 208.336.6912 oe~mcdevitt -miller .com C~CEI\/ED liED --- f1m: (' ~p : ..j 1\) ..) L. ! t' ! i In I.jU j)UfiLIC J r l LIT IE s eD r'1/"'11 S S ION Attorneys for Magic Wind, LLC Cassia Wind Park LLC and Cassia Wind LLC ORIGINAL BEFORE THE IDAHO PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION IN THE MATTER OF THE PETITION OF IDAHO POWER COMPANY FOR AN ORDER TEMPORARILY SUSPENDING IDAHO POWER'S PURP A OBLIGATION TO ENTER INTO CONTRACTS TO PURCHASE ENERGY GENERATED BY WIND- POWERED SMALL POWER PRODUCTION FACILITIES. Case No. IPC-O5- ANSWER TO PETITIONS OF IDAHO POWER COMPANY FOR RECONSIDERATION AND FOR STAY COME NOW, Magic Wind LLC, Cassia Wind Park LLC, Cassia Wind LLC (collectively Magic and Cassia ), pursuant to IPUCRP 331., and Answer the Petitions of Idaho Power Company ("Idaho Power , " IPCo ) for Reconsideration and for Stay as follows, to wit: Petition for Reconsideration. Idaho Power s Petition does not add any thing to the record with respect to the legal issues associated with exemption standards, but merely concurs in the views expressed in the Staff Petition for Reconsideration dated August 31 , 2005. "Idaho Power will not repeat in this Petition all of the legal citations already presented in the Staffs Petitions." (Petition, pg. 3). ANSWER TO PETITIONS OF IDAHO POWER COMPANY FOR RECONSIDERATION AND FOR STAY - Accordingly, Magic and Cassia will not repeat here their demonstration of the error in Staffs reasoning. In their Answers to the Windland Petition and the Staff Petition, Magic and Cassia demonstrated that the exemption standard employed in change-of-rate cases was legally permissible in those circumstances, but is not legally required in this case involving change-of- eligibility criteria. As a regulatory body, the Commission is not bound by the doctrine of stare decisis in the same way courts of law are: Because regulatory bodies perform legislative as well as judicial functions in their proceedings, they are not so rigorously bound by the doctrine of stare decisis that they must decide all future cases in the same way as they have decided similar cases in the past. Intermountain Gas Co. v. Idaho Pub. Uti!. Comm 'n, 97 Idaho 113, 119, 540 P.2d 775 , 781 (1975). Rosebud Enterprises v. Idaho pub. Uti!. Comm '128 Idaho 609, 917 P.2d 766 (1996). Where good reasons exist, the Commission has the flexibility to adopt different policies for different circumstances. And, as also demonstrated in Magic and Cassia s Answers to the Windland and Staff Petitions, good reasons exist for the adoption of a different standard from that applicable to change-of-rate cases. With respect to the threshold criteria of submission of an interconnection application, the Idaho Power Petition makes an assertion of fact that is not supported by and is contradicted by the record. The Petition states , " Submittal of a request for an interconnection study is only the first step in the interconnection process." (IPCo Petition, pg. 5). In fact, submission of an interconnection application is not just the "first step" in the interconnection process. It has greater significance. Exhibit 605 , received in evidence at the evidentiary hearing, is an Idaho Power Company publication that provides information to potential interconnectors. It describes the interconnection application this way: ANSWER TO PETITIONS OF IDAHO POWER COMPANY FOR RECONSIDERATION AND FOR STAY - Receipt of the completed application and the associated fee will be considered the official notification to Idaho Power Company of your intention tointerconnect." (Emphasis added). Idaho Power publishes on its website, in summary form, a list of projects that have submitted interconnection applications, presumably so that other potential interconnectors can know where they stand "in the queue" of projects seeking to interconnect. (Tr., pg. 78). Thus, submission of an interconnection application is not simply an incidental " first step in the interconnection process. It is considered by IPCo as the official notification of intent to interconnect. It becomes the basis for notification to the public of the amount of capacity IPCo considers being committed for supply to IPCo. And, in Exhibit 603, IPCo s Answer to Magic and Cassia Discovery Requests, Idaho Power indicated that the amount of capacity represented by interconnection applications for projects less that 20 mw, as of the date oflPCo s Petition, was 79.07 mw. This is hardly a deluge" when compared to IPCo' s plans to add 940 mw over a ten year period or when compared to IPCo s system name place capacity of3 000 mw. (Exhibit 604, Tr., Pg. 78-79). Finally, submission of an interconnection application must be accompanied by payment of a substantial fee, providing further indication of a project's serious intent to proceed. (Exhibit 605). For these reasons, the Commission s selection of submission of an interconnection application as a threshold criterion is reasonable and should be retained. Submission of an application is not just a "first step . It is an official notification of intent. It becomes the basis for public notification of the amount of committed capacity. It would produce a class of exempt projects that is not large. It is strong evidence of serious intent to proceed. ANSWER TO PETITIONS OF IDAHO POWER COMPANY FOR RECONSIDERATION AND FOR STAY - Petition to Stay Because, as demonstrated above, IPCo s Petition for Reconsideration is without merit, it follows that the Petition to Stay should also be denied. DATED this \-t.day of September, 2005. Respectfull y submitted Dean J. Mi McDevitt & Miller LLP 420 W. Bannock Boise, ID 83702 Phone: (208) 343-7500Fax: (208) 336-6912 Counsel for Magic Wind LLC Cassia Wind Park LLC and Cassia Wind LLC ANSWER TO PETITIONS OF IDAHO POWER COMPANY FOR RECONSIDERATION AND FOR STAY - CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I hereby certify that on the Itt!Lrtay of September, 2005, I caused to be served, via themethod(s) indicated below, true and correct copies of the foregoing document, upon: Jean Jewell, Secretary Idaho Public Utilities Commission 472 West Washington Street O. Box 83720 Boise, ID 83720-0074 i iewell~puc.state.id. us Hand Delivered S. Mail Fax Fed. Express Email Scott Woodbury Idaho Public Utilities Commission 472 West Washington Street O. Box 83720 Boise, ID 83720-0074 swoodbu~puc.state. Hand Delivered S. Mail Fax Fed. Express Email Barton L. Kline Monica B. Moen Idaho Power Company 1221 West Idaho Street O. Box 70 Boise, ID 83707 BKline(~jdahopow er. com MMoen~idahopower. com Hand Delivered S. Mail Fax Fed. Express Email Linda Nordstrom PacifiCorp 825 NE Multnomah, Suite 1800 Portland, OR 97232 Fax: 503.813.7252 lisa.nordstrom~paci fi corp. com Hand Delivered S. Mail Fax Fed. Express Email Bob Lively Pacificorp One Utah Center, 23rd Floor 201 S. Main Street Salt Lake City, UT 84140 Fax: 801.220.2798 bob .livel v~pacificorp. com Hand Delivered S. Mail Fax Fed. Express Email '-A '-A '-A '-A '-A '-A vf""-S '-A '-A '-A '-A '-A '-A '-A ANSWER TO PETITIONS OF IDAHO POWER COMPANY FOR RECONSIDERATION AND FOR STAY - William J. Batt John R. Hammond, Jr. Batt & Fisher, LLP U S Bank Plaza, 5th Floor 101 South Capital Boulevard O. Box 1308 Boise, ID 83701 Fax: 208.331.2400 irhcmbattfisher.com wibcmbattfisher. com Hand Delivered S. Mail Fax Fed. Express Email Michael Heckler Director of Marketing & Development W indland Incorporated 7669 West Riverside Drive, Suite 102 Boise, ID 83714 Fax: 208.375.2894 mheckl ercmwindland. com Hand Delivered S. Mail Fax Fed. Express Email Peter J. Richardson James T. Carkulis Richardson & O'Leary PLLC 99 East State Street O. Box 1849 Eagle, ID 83616 Fax: 208.938.7904 peter~ri chardsonando I eary. com Hand Delivered S. Mail Fax Fed. Express Email Glenn Ikemoto Principal Energy Vision, LLC 672 Blair Avenue Piedmont, CA 94611 Fax: 510.217.2239 gJenni~pacbell.net Hand Delivered S. Mail Fax Fed. Express Email '-A '-A '-A '-A '-A '-A '-A '-A '-A ANSWER TO PETITIONS OF IDAHO POWER COMPANY FOR RECONSIDERATION AND FOR STAY - Richard L. Storro Director, Power Supply and David Meyer 1411 E. Mission Ave. O. Box 3727, MSC- 7 Spokane, W A 99220-3727 Fax: 509.495.4272 di ck. storro~avistacorp. com da vid.mever~avistacorp. com Hand Delivered S. Mail Fax Fed. Express Email R. Blair Strong Paine, Hamblen, Coffin, Brooke & Miller LLP 717 West Sprague Ave., Suite 1200 Spokane, W A 99201-3505 Fax: 509.838.0007 r. blair. strong~painehamblen. com Hand Delivered S. Mail Fax Fed. Express Email J. R. Simplot Company Attn: David Hawk Director, Energy Natural Resources 999 Main Street P. O. Box 27 Boise, Idaho 83702 (208) 389-7306 Fax: (208) 389-7333 dhawk~simplot.com Hand Delivered S. Mail Fax Fed. Express Email R. Scott Pasley Assistant General Counsel J. R. Simp lot Company 999 Main Street Box27 Boise, Idaho 83702 (208) 389-7321 (208) 389-7464 telefax IDJaslev~simplot.com Hand Delivered S. Mail Fax Fed. Express Email '-A '-A '-A '-A '-A '-A '-A '-A '-A '-A '-A ANSWER TO PETITIONS OF IDAHO POWER COMPANY FOR RECONSIDERATION AND FOR STAY - William M. Eddie Advocates for the West O. Box 1612 Boise, ID 83701 billeddie~rmci.net Hand Delivered S. Mail Fax Fed. Express Email '-A '-A '-A '-A ANSWER TO PETITIONS OF IDAHO POWER COMPANY FOR RECONSIDERATION AND FOR STAY -