Wwp Will Sell Power To Clark Pud

Washington Water Power Co. will be doing almost $40 million in business with Clark Public Utilities by this time next year, but it didn’t come cheap.

As part of a complex legal settlement, WWP will pay the Bonneville Power Administration $9 million in compensation for load its contracts will take away from the federal power-marketing agency.

Portland-based PacifiCorp is contributing another $11 million for access to Clark, which has moved aggressively to remove almost all its load from Bonneville.

WWP marketing executive Tom Johns said the deal clears the way for electricity transactions with Clark that will be worth about $19 million per year through mid-2001.

Beginning about September of 1997, the Spokane utility will also provide natural gas to a new combustion turbine Clark is building. That contract will be worth $12 million to $15 million per year, Johns said.

But an existing three-year, $20 million power-supply contract with Clark will expire at the same time, he said.

Johns said that when the new power-supply contract is fully implemented next year, WWP will be providing more than 25 percent of Clark’s maximum load.

“We felt it was important to start service to Clark,” he said to explain the compensation to Bonneville, which will be made in two annual cash payments.

Clark had sued Bonneville last fall, claiming the agency had changed the way it calculated its load, and whether it had more or less power than needed to meet customer needs.

Clark believed Bonneville was short of power, a condition that would have allowed officials to buy power on the open market from WWP, PacifiCorp or anyone else with cheaper power.

But Bonneville said it had a surplus of electricity, and would not allow the private utilities to transmit power over its grid to Clark.

When terms of the settlement are completed, the litigation before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will be dismissed.

, DataTimes