Agenda Date: March 12, 1997
Item Number: 

Docket:  UE-970451
Company Name: Puget Sound Energy


Staff:   Thomas Schooley, Revenue Requirements Specialist

Recommendation:

Grant request to accumulate as a regulatory liability the monies received from 
the Bonneville Power Administration Residential Exchange Settlement.  The 
regulatory liability should be recognized on the income statement over the 
years 1997 through 2001, as requested.

Discussion:

In supplemental testimony filed under the Docket UE-950618, Puget Sound Energy 
(PSE) asks for four different items, including an accounting order, on the 
final payments from the BPA Residential Exchange.  The residential exchange 
accounting order request is excised from the other subjects to facilitate 
earlier implementation.  

Per a settlement between BPA and PSE the residential exchange is being phased 
out over the next five years.  Puget’s petition details the payment schedule of 
monies from BPA. Also,  in the years 1997 and 1998, PSE will receive the 
balances due from the PRAM 4 and 5 periods.  The payments from BPA are much 
greater in the early years and diminish over time.  PSE requests an order 
allowing it to accrue a liability for the BPA payments and to amortize it 
against power costs in a more even manner over the next five years.  The 
pattern of payments and the timing of recognizing such BPA payments for 
regulatory accounting purposes is attached.

Granting this accounting order will allow the company to mitigate increases in 
power costs, thereby smoothing the impact on earnings.  The results of this 
smoothing will be used in the Company’s regular commission basis reports.

Staff does not oppose this request.

Attachment