IDAHO PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION

For Immediate Release / April 3, 2002

Case No. IPC-E-01-13, Order No. 28993

Contact: Gene Fadness (208) 334-0339

Idaho Power directed to form energy efficiency group

BOISE – The Idaho Public Utilities Commission is ordering Idaho Power Co. to immediately form an Energy Efficiency Advisory Group that will outline proposed long-term conservation programs.

A commission order on Nov. 21, 2001, directed Idaho Power to form the advisory group. On March 14, the Land and Water Fund of the Rockies filed a motion asking the commission to enforce that November order.

This week the commission did so, directing the company to appoint the members of the advisory group and establish a plan for implementing conservation programs by no later than May 2. “The deadline will prove to be a substantial task, but it is a situation of Idaho Power’s own making,” the commissioners said.

The company said it interpreted the original November order to mean it could appoint the advisory group after the commission had decided how the conservation programs would be funded. Idaho Power last year asked that a two-year tariff rider be added to customer bills to fund the programs. The rider would have resulted in an increase to the average residential bill of about 28 cents a month. The commissioners denied funding at that time, but said it would take the matter up this spring through the company’s annual power cost adjustment process.

The company said it has formulated the charter for the group but not selected the members. “There is little, if anything, the advisory group can accomplish until the level of revenue that will be available for DSM programs is known to Idaho Power,” the company said.

In their order this week, the commissioners said the language of the November order explicitly stated that Idaho Power would form the advisory group and create an implementation plan so that the necessary groundwork would be in place once the funding issue was resolved.

“We do not understand how Idaho Power could construe this language in a manner that would justify waiting until the program was funded before convening the advisory group,” the commissioners said. “Although it would be helpful for the advisory group to know the amount of funding that will be available, there is no reason it cannot investigate and prioritize desirable conservation programs without this information.”

“In short, the commission is disappointed that Idaho Power has done so little to comply” with the November order, commissioners said. “Although we do not currently hold the company in contempt, the commission does find Idaho Power’s inaction to be a serious breach of compliance.”

To ensure progress is being made, the commission also directed Idaho Power to submit a plan by April 12 on how the company intends to meet the May 2 deadline.

Hearings that begin next week in Twin Falls will address conservation program funding as well as the company’s annual power cost adjustment and its proposal to issue bonds to finance its power supply costs of last year. Also discussed will be renewal, modification of elimination of the tiered-rate structure for residential customers enacted by the commission last year.

At the workshops, commission staff as well as Idaho Power Co. personnel will be on hand to answer questions from the public. Formal testimony will be taken at the public hearings that follow. All workshops begin at 6 p.m. and all hearings begin at 7:

n Twin Falls – April 10 at the West Coast Twin Falls Hotel, 1357 Blue Lakes Boulevard North.

n Pocatello – April 15 at the West Coast Hotel, 1555 Pocatello Creek Road.

n Boise – April 25 at the Idaho Public Utilities Commission, 472 W. Washington St.

A technical hearing is also scheduled for April 26 at 9:30 a.m. in the commission hearing room at 472 W. Washington St. in Boise.