Revised Residential Exchange Program Agreement – 93.8% of COUs and IOUs sign!
Posted on June 17, 2011 by Catriona McCracken
Tags, Utility Regulation
When was the last time you heard that 94% of the Northwest agreed on anything – you probably couldn’t even get 94% of the region to agree that it’s time for some summer weather. But 93.8% of the region has agreed to settle the decades-long dispute over allocating the benefits of federal hydropower. CUB is encouraged because it allows the region to focus on important topics such as keeping rates affordable, addressing the issue of wind integration and preparing for the changes in hydropower that will be caused by climate change.
As our faithful readers will know from reading CUB’s prior blogs on this topic, “CUB Signs the BPA REP Settlement Agreement” and “Revised REP Settlement Agreement”, an earlier version of this settlement did not meet the threshold for signers and was voided by its own terms. Many publicly-owned utilities (COUs), and all of the investor owned utilities (IOUs), state public utility commissions (PUCs) and CUB felt that we had come too close to let this deal just die – 81.5% of the publicly owned utilities, and all of the investor owned utilities had signed the original agreement meaning that 90% of the regional load was on board.
Given the above, CUB worked with a coalition of publicly-owned utilities, investor-owned utilities and the state commissions to draft a Revised Residential Exchange Program Agreement – this Agreement changed only the dates for signing and the threshold number of publics that had to sign for the Agreement to meet the conditions precedent to consideration and possible adoption and signature by the BPA Administrator. The revised threshold was set at 75%. This time 88.1% signed. Which goes to show that lowering the threshold, making the number seem more doable and providing more time for utilities to evaluate the benefits and risks of the settlement, had exactly the desired effect. For example, Clark Public Utilities (which serves Clark County, Washington) was the largest utility not to sign the first go around, but with the additional time, and the new threshold, Clark changed its mind and signed the agreement. As reported in ClearingUp 1495 [3/19]:
“Clark spokeswoman Erica Erland said the utility reversed course after concluding its vote was no longer pivotal in determining the overall outcome. She said that during Friday’s special meeting, Commissioner Carol Curtis, who made the motion to sign, said Clark is no longer pivotal, and since the settlement will go into effect regardless, the least risk to Clark’s customers for rate impacts or legal outcomes was to move forward.”
This is great news and was reported on by the the Oregonian.
If BPA Administrator Steve Wright adopts and signs the Revised Residential Exchange Program Agreement—which his staff is recommending that he do—this settlement would help resolve many of the disputes in the multitude of pending lawsuits related to BPA’s implementation of the Residential Exchange Program.
We have been waiting for the BPA Record of Decision (ROD) in the REP-12 proceeding which will signal whether or not the BPA Administrator intends to sign the Revised Residential Exchange Program Agreement. While the final ROD is not due until July, on June 14, 2011 BPA did issue its draft ROD. That draft ROD demonstrates that the Administrator intends to adopt the Revised Residential Program Settlement Agreement. Such a decision will provide greater financial certainty to BPA customers of all affiliations for the next 17 years.
With 93.8% of the IOUs and COUs in the region on board CUB eagerly awaits the BPA Administrator’s final record of decision – CUB hopes very much that he will sign authorizing adoption of the Revised Agreement by BPA. The BPA Administrator has until August 1, 2011 to sign.
While some may think it is too early to trumpet that “history has been made here today,” CUB likes to celebrate each milestone along the way. And readers this was a HUGE MILESTONE! Never before has 93.8% of the region agreed on anything – CUB is delighted with the progress made to date and thanks all those in the public power and investor owned communities who have come together to keep the dream of peaceful and equitable distribution of the federal hydro benefit alive in this region!
To keep up with CUB, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter!
03/24/17 | 0 Comments | Revised Residential Exchange Program Agreement – 93.8% of COUs and IOUs sign!