• MWh sales of 83,415 for December were below the budgeted amount of 86,080. Temperatures were cooler than average with heating degree days at 345 versus a 30 year average of 317. Year-to-date MWh sales remain below budget due to conservation efforts and cooler than average temperatures in the summer months.

• Wholesale gross margins were above budget for the month of December, but trending down from the summer ($1.2M to $.4M). Winter months generally produce less wholesale sales due to a decrease demand in energy. Year-to-date wholesale gross margins continue to be higher due to BWP�s ability to efficiently use utility assets to increase sales in the wholesale market during the summer months.

• Magnolia 2 turbine demolition completed.

• Magnolia 3 is in cold shutdown status.

• Magnolia 4 is in cold shutdown status.

• Magnolia 5 is available for service.

• Olive 1 is off line. Unit is in cold shutdown status.

• Olive 2 is off line. Unit is in cold shutdown status.

• Olive 3 is available for service.

• Olive 4 is available for service.

• Lake One is available for emergency use only. All that remains to make the Lake One combustion turbine operational is successful operation of the unit�s NOx reduction equipment, the SCR. Prior tests nearly passed. At high load levels, the NOx levels exceeded the 5 parts per million standard by just a fraction. As a result, BWP conducted a detailed evaluation of the complete system finding numerous refinements to improve the performance. The manufacturer of the catalyst is currently replacing the catalyst and providing our staff training regarding the installation and handling of the catalyst at no cost to BWP.

The new catalyst is expected to arrive in early February. It will be installed immediately. Tests will be scheduled as soon as possible and under the most favorable conditions possible. The test results will be compiled and certified by an independent testing company and sent to the SCAQMD. The SCAQMD staff will then review the results. If the results are satisfactory a permit to operate will be issued. This process can take nearly two months.

• The Magnolia Cooling Towers 1, 2, 3 and 4 have been demolished. The BWP Yard is being cleared and fenced off for the Magnolia Power Project. All personnel lockers have been moved out of the Magnolia plant change room. An 8-foot section of main and bypass gas fuel lines were removed from the Magnolia 3 and 4 boilers.

• The Olive Units 1 and 2 boilers were out of hot standby and cooled down on December 12. Olive Unit 1 is being abated for asbestos in the areas needed for the NOx Retrofit Project.

• The Olive and Magnolia Combustion Turbines were run due to loss of IPP power.

December 2002 Unit Data

 

Unit	Availability	Operating Hours	MWH Net	NOx, lbs.
M-3	0%	0	0	0
M-4	0%	0	0	0
M-5	100%	2.117	38	-
L-1	0%	20.800	740	167.82
O-1	0%	0	0	36.20
O-2	0%	0	0	131.07
O-3	100%	0.383	0	-
O-4	100%	0	0	-

• Transmission and Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs)

The filing date for comments on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commissions (FERC�s) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR), which deals with Standard Market Design (SMD) for RTO�s, has been pushed back to January 2003. This is in response to a "push-back" from various parts of the country, especially the Northwest and Southeast. FERC�s SMD proposal has also been subject to various congressional investigations. As well, FERC has recently approved the formation of several new regional RTO�s whose market structure differs from the blue print set forth in the NOPR. In view of the foregoing, it is not known at this time whether or when SMD might be implemented.

• FERC Data Requests and Refund Calculation

FERC has launched a 100 day investigation into the events that led to the price run-ups in the natural gas and electricity markets in 2000 and 2001. Burbank received an extensive data request from California Parties representing the Attorney General and various State agencies. Considerable staff time was spent during the month preparing BWP�s responses.

• Restructuring of Gas Industry in California

Implementation of the Comprehensive Settlement by Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) is still under suspension. It now appears that the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) will be making a decision in mid-January regarding whether the settlement should be implemented.

The Remote Terminal Unit (RTU) modifications for the Victory Distributing Station has been completed, as well as the annunciator change out at the Naomi Distributing Station. Fieldwork is underway on RTU modifications for the Naomi, McCambridge and Winona Distributing Stations. The RTU drawings for Town Distributing Stations were issued. A Metso software engineer was on-site to modify the Interchange Transaction Scheduling (ITS) software to correctly reflect BWP�s energy scheduling practices. The tag designations requested by the Dispatchers were successfully added as well as fast calculation software to calculate and display percent line loading, power factor, etc. from incoming data. The RTU installation at the Victory Distributing Station is complete.

 

BWP continues to link SCADA to the Distributed Control System (DCS) at the Olive Power Plant and Lake Street. Work continued on the energy database and further testing and development of the ITS/Automatic Generation Control (AGC) software.

• Telecom

BWP provided a proposal for fiber optic service to HeyAnita at 303 N. Glenoaks Boulevard to the Qwest Cyber Center at 3015 Winona Avenue.

 

BWP held a meeting with representatives from Verizon to begin discussions on developing a partnership to provide existing customers and the City with carrier level services.

• BWP Administration Building Remodel

Phase III - Interior Building Remodel:

 

The City Attorney's Office returned the bid package for Phase III of the Building Remodel to BWP for final review and signatures. The architect, Fong Kutner and Associates is still working at finalizing the construction drawings.

• Electrical Distribution

Engineering for the Media District underground project, Bid Schedule No. 1133, has been completed for extending the ducts and manholes along Hollywood Way from the Warner Ranch Gate to Oak Street, along Oak Street to California Street, along California Street from Oak Street to Alameda Avenue, and also along Avon Street from Oak Street to the alley north of Alameda. Staff advertised for bids in October and held the bid opening November 19. The bid award was approved by the BWP Board on January 16, 2003.

 

Construction of the new offramp (to allow construction of a new Hollywood Way Distributing Station) will begin in January. Staff secured a Caltrans permit, and Pacific Bell took care of their remaining lines.

 

Underground ductwork has been completed near Hollywood Way and San Fernando, allowing an overhead line to be rerouted along a less visible path.

 

Engineering for Phase I of the DCSB has been completed; however, at this time there is only approval to reroute the existing services and remove the poles.

 

Victory-Valley No. 2 is energized, and the third 34,500-volt line position at Victory Distributing Station is 50% completed.

 

Engineering has been completed for replacing oil switches with SF6 switches at San Jose Distributing Station. All fieldwork has been to prepare for taking an outage and installing the switches in place.

 

Electric service to Howard Business Park (Ontario Street) from the 34,500-volt system has been completed.

 

Service to Radio Shack has been rerouted to clear the old Police site.

 

In addition to the identified major projects, 15 padmounted customer stations have been engineered, and ten have been issued to the field.

 

Engineering has been completed for the final phase of the Ben Mar Hills Project. Three street light improvement and undergrounding projects have been issued to the field.

 

Work is underway to replace 1,200 residential electric meters with meters that can be read remotely; 521 meters have been installed through January 15.

• Customer Service

A year long search by BWP staff for a new customer information and billing system (CIS) has concluded with the selection of Systems and Computer Technology, Inc. (SCT)�s Banner Product. SCT will be on-site January 13 to begin the implementation process. Over the past few months, BWP staff has been documenting its current business practices. This is a critical step to ensure we do not overlook any critical tasks or functions and to ensure we focus our attention and resources on areas where they are most needed. The project budget is $3,510,000 and our scheduled implementation date is April 2004.

• Refer to the attached for the Legislative update, including SCPPA�s "Legislative and Regulatory Key Interests" report, which has been approved by the SCPPA Board of Directors.

RED:RAC:FCF:JWL:GLS:ph

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