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procedural and administrative demands placed on it as a large independent power 

 producer. The energy efficiency industry, particularly in the Northwest for recisons 

 previously given, is small and very competitive The level of preparation required to 

 respond to a conservation bid is similar to that of a supply-side bid,. Companies like ours 

 must balance carefully the best use of our resources. We must weigh the costs of 

 responding to administratively demanding bid requests with the benefits of developing 

 projects directly. 



Our experience with utility bidding practices across the country is that the complexity, 

 rigidity and focus on simple economic criteria tend to limit the pro-am effectiveness to 

 "cream-skimming" targets which sacrifice lost opportunities 



3(c) Back in 1991 when Bonneville issued its only competitive solicitation tor 

 conservation, this company had not been established. The fact that we didnotparticpate 

 in the bidding process makes it difficult to respond to this question directly. 



However, what we can teHyoiu is that we understand that Bonneville never completed 

 that acquisition process In fact, it was e>plained to us that BonnevUle recently polled its 

 various customer utilities that had agreed to participate in the program two years ago to 

 inqute if they were stUl interested in particpating in theprogram. Theresponse that 

 Bonneville received was along the lines that most of these utilities had gone ahead with 

 programs of thet own and were not counting on this particular program tomaterialize 



Unfortunately, it is examples like this that send the message to the development 

 community that the higfi cost of doing business with Bonneville ^vatly outweighs any 

 benefits. 



Q. 4.: Is BPA an effective indirect purchaser of regional resources througji 

 third-party financing billing credits, conservation power plants and other 

 indirect means? 



A 4_- Proven Aitematives has successfully completed projects where BPA hcis been an 

 indirect purchaser of the energy savings In all three cases where BonnevUle programs 

 were used, the projects received the State of Washington's Governor's Award for Ener^ 

 Management 



One such project invoked the Columbia Basin College in Pasco and Richland, 

 Washington. Under contract with the State of Washington and BPA 's Energy Savings 

 Program (E$P), Proven AJtematives provided project financing engineering analysis, 

 design and specification, bid and contract documentation, and construction quality 

 assurance to the 25-building community college campus. The annual energy savings 

 from the installed measures are $73,000. 



The other two projects involved a youth camp facility built in the 1 950's as an AJr Force 

 installation which resulted in $15,000 annual energy savings, and South Seattle 



