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a cost-per-acre-foot basis adjusted according to the time remaining within which the suballocated costs must be repaid. The cost allocation on Table E-4, referred to previously, will probably have minor. changes in the future as a result of additional expenditures, cost increases, and suballocation of additional irrigation and other consumptive-use costs to municipal and industrial water. e. Replacements. Future replacement costs are considered part of projected future investment under a special category. Replacement costs are based on the estimated service life for each unit or property included in the total electric plant investment. The estimated service life of the units of property reflects the replacement experience the Bureau of Reclamation and other utilities have had over the years with various facilities. The total allocated electric plant investment used in computing replacement expense includes all electric facility costs plus an allocated portion of the multipurpose plant investment. For a large multipurpose project such as the CRSP, it is considered impracticable to project costs of future replacements on an item-by-item basis. Therefore, a methodology has been developed which enables cost of replacements in future years to be determined as a fraction of the investment costs for the various components such as generating units, transmission towers, etc. To be consistent with operation, maintenance, and other expense esti- mating, replacement costs for the 3 immediate future years of a study are reconciled to the most current program budget documents. Estimated replacement costs for the fourth and subsequent years in the repayment study are indexed to the current-study-year costs. The accumulated cost of replacements at the end of the study period (2059) is $188,725,000. Historically, the CRSP has made provisions for depreciation using a compound interest method of depreciation. For the current power system repayment study, replacement costs are capitalized starting in fiscal year 1973 by adding the estimated capital cost of replacements to the "unpaid Federal investment" in the year each replacement is estimated to go into service, with an appropriate adjustment in the "allowable unpaid investment~1I In accordance with Department directives, replacements are considered part of projected future investment under a special category. Fiscal year 1972 and previous studies forecasted costs based on the original installed cost of the facility. Commencing in fiscal year 1973, repayment studies indexed the original installed cost of the replacement item to current costs available. These cost indexing methods do not permit the forecasting of escalation of costs or expenses. It is con- sidered prudent to only update to current costs. Such methods establish the lowest possible power rates consistent with sound business pro- cedures based on known information. 24