WSP10622

• File Number: 8220.100.50
• Description: CRSP - Power
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Date: 11/15/1960
• Author: Engineering Comm.
• Title: Revenue Requirements of Colorado River Storage Project Transmission System
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Publication

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INTRODUCTION

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In December 1958, the Bureau of Reclamation provided, in its preliminary
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payout study for the Colorado River Storage Project and Participating

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Projects, an estimate of transmission costs for a federally-owned system. In

1959, five major private utilities operating in the Storage Project area pro-

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posed a combination utility-federal transmission system and provided estimated

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construction costs. These two alternatives were studied by the Colorado

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River Basin Consumers Power, Inc., a five-state group of preference customers

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for Storage Project power.

The utilities offered to wheel power over their proposed lines, but at

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that time quoted no specific prices for the service. The federal and com-

bined systems were therefore compared by the CRBCP, Inc. as to cost under the

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assumptions that:

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1. Typical Bureau charges would be those required to repay the costs of

federal construction, and,

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2. Typical utility charges would be imposed for utility construction.

From that study, the preference users concluded the utilities' probable

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charges would result in increased Storage Project power costs to consumers of

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$637 million over a 100-year period if Project payout were not to be less than

that provided by the Bureau's proposal. This conclusion was presented to

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Congressional Subcommittees during the hearings of April 11 and 12, 1960.

At the time of those hearings, actual quotations of prices for wheeling

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were made known to the Secretary by the five major utilities. The effect of

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these actual quotations was compared with typical charges for the Bureau's

estimated investment; the results of that comparison supported the earlier

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conclusions of the CRBCP, Inc. A supplemental statement to set forth these

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U.S.B.R. Financial and Economic Analysis Report, December, 1958.

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Electric Utility Transmission System Study as related to the
Colorado River Storage Project, October 1, 1959.