Website:
www.puc.idaho.gov
Transformer-sharing
agreement is approved
The Idaho Public Utilities Commission today approved a request by Idaho Power Co. to enter into a transformer-sharing agreement with 43 other electric utilities in the nation. The agreement provides that participating utilities may be called upon to provide or sell spare electric transformers when a terrorist attack disables one or more utility substations.
In
addition to providing for a more timely restoration of service in the event of
a terrorist attack, the pooling agreement also reduces the risk of long-term
outages due to transformer shortages.
The
43 participating utilities – including Avista Utilities serving northern Idaho
– own more than 60 percent of the nation’s interstate transmission system.
Under
the agreement, each utility is required to maintain and, if necessary, acquire
a specific number of transformers in each voltage class in which it
participates.
Idaho
Power states that it will lower its future overall costs in order to maintain
spare transformers in its inventory. The agreement does not increase rates.
“Although
the company has taken significant steps to protect its infrastructure from a
possible terrorist attack, Idaho Power does not believe it would be feasible or
economically practical to maintain in its inventory the large number of spare
transformers needed to address every ‘worst-case scenario’ for a terrorist
attack upon the electric system,” Idaho Power states in its application. “This
sharing agreement will allow Idaho Power and its customers to have the added
benefits of access to transformers in a national emergency without the added
costs and risks of buying and carrying large surpluses of spare transformers in
its inventory.”
A full text of the commission’s order, along with Idaho
Power’s application, is available on the commission’s Web site at www.puc.idaho.gov. Click
on “File Room” and then on “Electric Cases” and scroll down to Case No.
IPC-E-06-27.