T H E N E W S I N F O C U S

"We drew on all the available evi- dence. [Procedurallyl, we're going to keep on doing what we did here."

IRP Notebook

Washington CARES

A group of Washington public utility districts have joined to- gether to form the Conservation and Renewable Energy System (CARES), a joint action agency of the state of Washington. CARES was formed to cure one of the market problems often attributed to demand-side and renewable re- sources: their small scale and high administrative, financing and related overhead costs.

S teve Johnson, director of the Washington Public Utility

Districts' Association, says the new joint action agency will be able to issue municipal bonds. The bonds could enjoy a high credit rating, as their repayment stream will likely be backed by the Bonneville Power Administra- tion through its purchases of re- sources which CARES and its members develop. "CARES would 'package' the resources, wherever developed, for sale to Bonneville," Johnson said.

"The lawyers' work is done," added Johnson. "Now we're com- plying with the statutory require- ments for agency set-up and discussing possible supply con- tracts." Johnson said CARES might very well do much of its

work through energy service com- panies.

"Bonneville has been very sup- portive," says Johnson. "[BPA Ad- ministrator] Randy Hardy has talked up the approach in his re-

cent speeches." BPA is helping its customers

and other Northwest utilities ac- quire some 1200 megawatts in conservation resources over the next eight years, under the re- gional integrated resource plan developed by the Northwest Power Planning Council, an inter- state planning agency.

Compact Fluorescents Light Maine

Central Maine Power has pro- nounced its three-month compact fluorescent coupon program "an outstanding success." Named "Operation Lightswitch," the pro- gram promoted the sale of over 165,000 compact fluorescent light- bulbs in Central Maine's territory, through mailing of two $9 dis- count coupons to each of the utility's 450,000 residential customers.

Central Maine says the historic high costs of the high-efficiency bulbs, which last up to 13 times longer and use 75% less energy than comparably bright incandes- cent bulbs, were already reduced to the $13-$14 range in local stores by its programs. By using the CMP $9 coupon, the customers' price was brought down to the $4- $5 range - - low enough to pro- duce a payback from savings in less than six months.

C MP estimates the program will save eight megawatts of

generating capacity. Over the life of the bulbs, it estimates total en- ergy savings of 88 million kWh.

CMP senior vice president Richard A. Crabtree said that with its 1989 and 1991 programs, CMP had now placed over 250,000 com- pact fluorescent lightbulbs in customer homes, "far more than any utility of our size in the U.S."

IRP for Holding Companies: Alive, Alive, 0!

When it was clear the slimmed down Senate energy bill, S. 2166, had picked up a sufficiently strong wind to sail quickly to the Senate floor and beyond, support- ers of a proposal to permit re- gional integrated resource plan- ning for multistate holding companies reluctantly agreed to get out of the way in return for Sen. Bennett Johnston's (D-La.) support for their proposal at an- other time.

March 1992 7

T H E N E W S I N F O C U S

The proposal - - developed by the Arkansas Public Service Com- mission, Entergy Corp., and the City of New Orleans (See TEJ, Nov. 1991 at 22, Jan./Feb. 1992 at 24) - - would bridge the regula- tory gap highlighted by the U.S. Supreme Court's Mississippi Power and Light decision.

T he proposal would permit states served by a multistate

holding company system to choose one of several methods for developing a regional integrated resource plan. Under Mississippi Power and Light, states served by holding company systems are un- able to develop "least-cost" plans and make them stick, since states must pass on system power rates approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission whether or not the system complies with resource planning principles adopted by the states. Also, there is no existing federal mechanism for requiring an integrated re- source plan for regional holding companies.

The joint proposal had been planned as an amendment to the Senate energy bill. It now seems likely to be the subject of indepen- dent legislative consideration, as a result of a Senate floor colloquy February 6 among Energy and Natural Resources chair Bennett Johnston (D-La.), ranking major- ity member Dale Bumpers (D- Ark.), and Sen. David Pryor (D- Ark.).

In the colloquy, Sen. Bumpers expressed concern about passing S. 2166 without the regional plan- ning amendment. Said Bumpers:

"I want to confirm with [Sen. Johnston] that we will work to- gether to complete the drafting of the new legislation and then bring it to the floor for Senate action as soon as possible." Sen. Pryor

agreed. Responded Johnston: "I share

the concerns of the Senators and they have my commitment that I will cosponsor the legislation, hold hearings on it, and work for early enactment."

Conservation Pays Double Returns for Puget Power

p uget Sound Power & Light Co. is finding that it can do

well by doing good with conser- vation - - in ways it might not have suspected.

Puget recently moved into a brave new mode of revenues de- coupled from sales and incentive returns for conservation perfor- mance, as proposed by a conser- vation "collaborative" and ap- proved by the Washington

Utilities and Transportation Com- mission (see TEL Jul. 1991 at 46). The collaborative, which included a wide variety of interests, agreed on a system of incentives and pen- alities that would track the utility's conservation perfor- mance against projections.

Under the collaborative, Puget's conservation goal for 1991 was savings of 16 megawatts. When Puget went before the Northwest Power Planning Council in mid- February to report that it had ex- ceeded its target - - having achieved 17.58 MW of savings during 1991 - - the utility came away with something more than an expectation of earning an added $6.5 million under the collaborative's groundrules.

It also won the intervention of an important friend in a small but important power supply matter. As a bonus for its conservation ef- forts, the Council agreed to send a letter to the Federal Energy Regu- latory Commission supporting Puget's request to increase gener- ating capacity at its Snoqualmie Falls hydroelectric project from 42 MW to 73 MW. The Council's in- tervention came in spite of local and Native American opposition to the expansion.

Stan Grace (Mont.), Council vice chair, said, "If they've done a good job [of conservation], they should get a good pat on the back." The Council's letter to FERC said adverse fish and wild- life impacts at the project would be "exceptionally small."

Mary Smith, an energy conser- vation planner with Puget Power,

8 The Electricity Journal