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OWEN H. ORNDORFF
ORNDORFF & PETERSON
1087 West River Street
suite 230
Boise, Idaho 83702
Telephone: 208-343-8880
Fax: 208-345-0314
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BEFORE THE IDAHO PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION
IN THE MATTER OF THE APPLICATION )
OF IDAHO POWER COMPANY FOR A )
CERTIFICATE OF PUBLIC CONVENIENCE )
AND NECESSITY FOR THE RATE BASING )OF THE MILNER HYDROELECTRIC )
PROJECT, OR IN THE ALTERNATIVE, A )
DETERMINATION OF EXEMPT STATUS FOR )
THE MILNER HYDROELECTRIC PROJECT. )
)
CASE NO. IPC-E-90-8
COMMENTS OF AFTON
ENERGY, INC.
COMES NOW, Afton Energy, Inc. ("Afton") through its attorneys
Orndorff & Peterson, and offers the following statements of
position with respect to the above case.
1. Afton has excess capacity and energy available to sell
Idaho Power Company ( "Idaho Power") from an existing plant at
avoided costs yet to be determined based on a twenty year contract
which will provide ratepayers significant security guaranteeing
performance.
2 . Idaho Power proposes that the costs of building the
Milner project should be paid by ratepayers by including the Milner
proj ect in the ratebase. Afton assumes that Idaho Power i s charges
will be front end loaded with depreciation charges and return on
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equi ty in addition to the normal cost of capital and operating
expenses.
3. The Public utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978
("PURPA") and Idaho's implementation of PURPA specifically grant
to PURPA qualified facilities an avoided cost based on Idaho
Power i s avoided, incremental plant. Given a qualified facility
receives a level payment over its contract life verses Idaho
Power's front end loaded costs, qualified facilities offer the
least cost al ternati ve for new generation.
4. Given the foregoing, Afton En~rgy's position is that it
wants a level playing field on which it has the same ability to
provide Idaho Power's ratepayers capacity and energy measured
against a twenty year contract, cash escrow guaranteeing
performance, and other provisions applying to qualified facilities.
To the extent that Idaho Power asserts that the Milner proj ect has
unique project values that justify higher prices than available
from qualified facilities and such unique attributes benefit Idaho
Power's shareholders, Idaho Power's shareholders should pay for
such unique benefits and not ratepayers through higher energy
costs. Idaho Power's shareholders will own the Milner proj ect and
the costs in excess of competitive generation alternatives should
be fully allocated to Idaho Power's shareholders.
5. Idaho Power's ratepayers should pay for least cost
electrical generation and not generation resources which have an
inflated price with significant front end costs. Any other public
policy of acquiring generation resources other than a least cost
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methodology can only result in unnecessary increases in ratepayer
costs and damage to the Idaho economy.
6. wi th respect to Idaho Power's Request for "Exempt
status," Afton is unaware of any state statute which allows an
"Electrical Corporation" to voluntarily opt out from regulation.
Idaho Power may want to explore the possibility of the Milner
project becoming a qualified facility under PURPA as a means to
avoid state regulatiön.
DATED this %Jsr day of August, 1990 ~
n H. Orndorff
Attorneys for Afton
CERTIFICATE OF MAILING
I hereby certify that on this 29th day of August, 1990, I have
served a true and correct copy of the wi thin and foregoing COMMENTS
OF AFTON ENERGY, INC., postage prepaid and addressed as follows:
Larry Ripley
Evans, Keane, Koontz, Boyd,
Simko & Ripley
c/o Idaho Power Company
1220 West Idaho Street
P.O. Box 70
Boise, ID 83707
Steven L. Herndon
Idaho Power Company
1220 West Idaho Street
P.O. Box 70
Boise, Idaho 83707
Michael S. Gilmore
Brad M. Purdy
Idaho Public utilities
Commission
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statehouse Mail
Boise, Idaho 83720-0001
Grant E. Tanner
Davis Wright Tremaine
1300 SW Fifth Avenue
suite 2300
Portland, OR 97201
Peter J. Richardson
Davis Wright Tremaine
Jefferson Place, suite 400
350 N. Ninth
Boise, Idaho 83702-5471
Harold C. Miles
Idaho Consumer Affairs, Inc.
316 15th Avenue South
Nampa, Idaho 83651-4319
R. Scott Pasley
Assistant General Counsel
J. R. Simplot Company
P.O. Box 27
Boise, Idaho 83707-0027
David H. Hawk
Director, Energy NaturalResources
J. R. Simplot Company
P.O. Box 27
Boise, Idaho 83707-0027
James N. Roethe
Pillsbury, Madison, & Sutro
P.O. Box 7880
San Francisco, CA 94120
R. Michael Southcombe
Ci emons , Cosho & Humphres, P . A.
815 West Washington
Boise, Idaho 83702-5590
DATED this ~day of August
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