106 



spot market prices and given the estimated 500 megawatts of load that we expect 

 to leave Bonneville's system, we are looking at a possible S30 million to $50 

 million revenue reduction in the next year or two, or longer, depending on the 

 duration of current market conditions. 



Question Some have argued Bonneville should consider charging 

 customers who leave the system for the costs of the investments which are left 

 behind Is Bonneville considering such charges'^ 



Answer Bonneville is considering such charges 



Bonneville has established an ad hoc interdisciplinary team to examine the 

 issue of stranded investment Part of the impetus of this study is the Federal 

 Energy Regulatory Commission's recent Notice Of Proposed Rulemaking on open 

 access to electric power transmission 



Question In particular, can Bonneville charge exiting customers, who had 

 signed up for WOOPS, for their share of the remaining WOOPS debt costs'' 



Answer With Bonneville's strategic business objectives providing overall 

 guidance, an ad hoc interdisciplinary Bonneville team on stranded investment will 

 identif\' Bonneville's strategy on how to handle the stranded investment issue, 

 including the Washington Public Power Supply System debt costs During the 

 recent power sales contract negotiations, Bonneville made a commitment to look 

 at the issue of stranded investment and return to the customers with our thoughts 

 Bonneville will be meeting with the customers in the near fijture to discuss the 

 agency's objectives regarding stranded investment and seek customers input As 

 .stated earlier. Bonneville's statutors' obligations to recover total system costs 

 certainty included the requirement to recover supply system costs 



Question Speaking of WOOPS, in light of l)reliability problems at the 

 WNP-2 plant (it just had a 4-day shutdown on Feb 19), 2)the $251 million in 

 operating expenses for the WNP-2 plant, and 3) the high costs of purchasing 

 power from that facility )?> 4 cents per kilowatt hour compared with 2 7 cents for 

 gas), have you looked at the possibility of terminatmg WNP-2 as part of your costs 

 cutting efforts'' 



Answer Yes We have Essentially, as part of the cost cuts that we have 

 identified in the generation budget, we have told the Supply System, given the 

 figures to just cited that they need to get their costs, their operating cost of that 

 plant dowr from their current 34 mill level to 25 mills to 27 mills in the next two 

 years 1 would obser\e further that we can get more cost savings by that approach 

 then we can by a termination approach 



