OCR Text |
Show UP&L, CPN power hearings conclude Financial experts testify concerning UP&L electric rates and facilities. . . I A jr if h LA i .i in i Minn All stories by BRUCE LEE Record Asst. Editor SALT LAKE CITY - The Public Service Commission hearings concerning con-cerning the proposed sale of CP National electric properties in the area to Utah Power & Light continued Oct. 22 with the commissioners hearing UP&L testimony concerning finances and transmission facilities. Dean L. Bryner, UP&L vice president, system and resource planning, discussed the company's current transmission facilities and its future plans for additional or upgraded facilities; and OrrinT. Colby, assistant controller, continued in his testimony concerning the estimated purchase price of the CPN system. In an attempt to answer accusations against UP&L that the company wanted to purchase the southwest Utah system only for control of the vital transmission lines within the area, Bryner presented several exhibits explaining the worth of the transmission tran-smission lines to UP&L customers. According to the charts, the area transmission lines consist of a 230 kilovolt line from Glen Canyon to Sigurd and two lines, 230 KV and 138 KV, from Sigurd into the CPN service district. Bryner presented two options for future imporovements and additions to the transmission system, stating that one or the other would be taken, regardless of the outcome of the proposed purchase. Bryner stated that some type of improvements and additions would be necessary in the future simply to maintain the company's reserve margin. The first option, the least desirable to UP&L, would be to upgrade the 230 KV line from Glen Canyon to Sigurd to a 345 KV line, tapping the extra power from the proposed Navajo Power Plant near Glen Canyon. This option would cost the company $29,889,700, said Bryner. The option preferred by the company is to upgrade the 230 KV line from Sigurd through the current CPN service district to a 345 KV line, and continue it through the area to tap additional power from either the propsed Warner Valley Power Plant or a new 345 KV line being built by Nevada Power from Glen Canyon through the area. According to Colby, this option would cost only $22,931,800, nearly $7 million less than option one. This savings, said Colby, would benefit the customer and the stockholder of UP&L far beyond any purchase price of the CPN system. In cross-examination, Bruce Plenke, attorney for the Utah Coalition of Senior Citizens, questioned Bryner concerning the ability of the Southwest Utah Cooperative Power Federation to own and operate the same lines and derive the benefits for the local citizenry. Bryner said that if the SUCPF obtained ob-tained the system they would be tied into the UP&L power distribution grid and could wheel power for UP&L through the area. But, he continued, because of the small size of the SUCPF, it would not be able to hook into the services of the Western Systems Coordinating Council, which coordinates the transmission of electricity throughout the United States through a complex grid of high-voltage transmission lines. In other action of the day, Assistant Attorney General James Barker, representing the mayors in southwest Utah, continually pressed the commission com-mission to require Colby to present his working papers for arriving at an estimated purchase price for the system. The demand by Barker was precipitated when Colby presented revised testimony and exhibits lowering the proposed purchase price by over $2 million. This change occured entirely in a part of the price labeled simply as "tax items." According to Colby, in earlier testimony, these items were variables that could not be definitely set and would continue to change up until the final date of the sale. Barker accused UP&L of raising the price high enough to "preclude the people of southern Utah from purchasing pur-chasing their own system." "We have to determine then if this is a real price or a contrived price," continued Barker in asking for the working papers. i The motion was denied by the commissioners, who stated that the price of the sale had little or nothing to do with the matter before them and that the demand would only delay the hearings for a couple more weeks. Later in the week, lawyers for both CPN and UP&L announced that the working papers would be produced voluntarily and that financial counsel would be made available to Barker to show that the change in the "tax items" was, indeed, justified. Bruce Plenke, attorney for the Utah Coalition of Senior Citizens, discusses petition circulated by UP&L with Jay Gardner, UP&L Telluride Division manager. 1 he petition showed a 79 percent per-cent approval rate of UP&L by current CPN customers. |