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More generally, we believe that the intent of the 6.(c) process would be better 

 served by making as much information available to the Council and the pubhc as 

 possible, consistent with Bonneville's need to have effective business relations with 

 potential developers. In this first resource solicitation, Bonneville included provisions 

 that prohibited any release of confidential information. As a result, Bonneville was 

 unable to provide specific information regarding the terms of the gas supply contracts. 

 Similarly, Bonneville was unable to provide bid price and system cost information for 

 all the projects in the Competitive Acquisition Program, although they subsequently 

 provided this information in summary form. The confidentiality provisions hampered 

 the Council in our analysis. 



We understand that Bonneville officials agree that the confidentiality provisions can 

 be relaxed without adversely affecting Bonneville's process. It is our understanding 

 that Bonneville intends to change these provisions in future resource acquisitions. 

 Therefore we expect that this issue will not be a problem in the future. At the same 

 time, the Council will be working on internal policies that will ensure that any 

 confidential information we receive will be protected under the Freedom of Information 

 Act. 



Thus, while our staff is confident about its conclusions regarding Tenaska, we 

 are working to improve the accuracy of our future reviews. The Tenaska 6.(c) review 

 truly was a learning experience. We have some concerns about the process, and we 

 intend to examine the current process before undertaking the next 6.(c) review. 



Acquisition of other resources 



In practice, there are significant differences in the processes used by Bonneville 

 to acquire conservation and generating resources, either renewable resources or those 

 fired by fossil fuels. 



Generating resources 



In contrast to conservation acquisition, development of generating resources 

 generally is undertaken on the basis of some kind of performance contract ~ the 

 developer gets paid for the kilowatt hours produced. The allocation of risk is, to a large 

 extent, the subject of the contract between Bonneville and the developer. Similarly, the 

 purchaser is obligated to pay under the terms of the contract. The purchaser may not 

 reduce purchases for the convenience of budgets, except as provided in the contract. 



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