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01373 Section 5(e) allows mainstern assistance to occur anytime within the full 50-year repayment period of a project, but at no time can the assistance payments extend beyond the 50-year repayment period of a particular project. An example of the financial link between the mainstem and the participating projects through Section 5(e) is demonstrated for the Lyman Project, in Wyoming, in Exhibits 1 and 2. Exhibit 1 shows the current cost allocation and repayment status as of the end of fiscal year 1993 for the Lyman Project. The total cost allocated to irrigation for the project is $26,084,043, of which the irrigators' will repay $2,271,556. Revenues from the mainstem units will assist in repaying allocated costs above the ability of the irrigators to repay, or the difference of $23,812,487. Exhibit 2 illustrates the estimated timing of assistance payments over the repayment period of the project. Estimates of the timing and amount of apportioned revenue payments are updated annually. Certain variables, such as the amount of energy produced and marketed, operation and maintenance expenses, replacement costs, and unforseen extraordinary expenditures can influence the amount and timing of revenues available for apportionment. These annual changes in the timing of payments allow for a great degree of flexibility in coping with the unpredictability of such significantly impacting variables as long-term fluctuations in weather patterns. The flexibility gained from annual adjustments in the apportioned revenue payments within the 50 years of each project repayment period contribute toward a more stable power market by minimizing the necessity of constantly adjusting the power rate. Timing for the repayment of irrigation investment in the participating projects can be as important in determining the power rate as the investment itself. In 1981, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission held that the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) should not include future CRSP participating project costs in the power rate unless Reclamation, "made a good faith showing of a reasonable expectation that a project or a separable feature thereof would be constructed". Subsequently, Reclamation and Western Area Power Administration (Western) signed an agreement in 1983 to schedule the assistance requirements of the indefinitely deferred projects beyond the rate setting years of the power rate study. An example of those projects allowed and excluded in Western's 1993 Power Repayment Study is shown in Exhibit 3. Note that those projects with repayment periods extending to the year 2090 and beyond are not included in the rate base, however, all authorized projects are included in the power repayment study. Apoortionment Effects on Power Rate Although flexibility exists in the timing of mains tern assistance within the 50-year repayment periods of the participating projects, 2