[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 73 (Wednesday, April 16, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18619-18621]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-9326]



[[Page 18619]]

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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Southeastern Power Administration


Proposed Rate Adjustment, Public Forum, and Opportunities for 
Public Review and Comment for Georgia-Alabama-South Carolina System of 
Projects

AGENCY: Southeastern Power Administration, DOE.

ACTION: Notice of proposed rate.

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SUMMARY: Southeastern Power Administration (Southeastern) proposes to 
revise existing schedules of rates and charges applicable to the sale 
of power from the Georgia-Alabama-South Carolina System of Projects 
effective for a 4-year period, October 1, 2003, through September 30, 
2007. Additionally, opportunities will be available for interested 
persons to review the present rates, the proposed rates and supporting 
studies, to participate in a forum and to submit written comments. 
Southeastern will evaluate all comments received in this process.

DATES: Written comments are due on or before July 15, 2003. A public 
information and comment forum will be held in Atlanta, Georgia, at 10 
a.m., on May 29, 2003. Persons desiring to speak at the forum should 
notify Southeastern at least 3 days before the forum is scheduled, so 
that a list of forum participants can be prepared. Others may speak if 
time permits.

ADDRESSES: Written comments should be submitted to: Administrator, 
Southeastern Power Administration, Department of Energy, 1166 Athens 
Tech Road, Elberton, Georgia, 30635-6711. The public information and 
comment forum for the Georgia-Alabama-South Carolina System of Projects 
will be at the Westin Atlanta Airport, 4736 Best Road, Atlanta, Georgia 
(404) 762-7676.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Leon Jourolmon, Assistant 
Administrator, Finance & Marketing, Southeastern Power Administration, 
Department of Energy, 1166 Athens Tech Road, Elberton, Georgia, 30635, 
(706) 213-3800.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Secretary of the Department of Energy 
(the Secretary), by order issued July 25, 2002 (67 FR 51564), confirmed 
and approved on an interim basis Wholesale Power Rate Schedules SOCO-1-
A, SOCO-2-A, SOCO-3-A, SOCO-4-A, ALA-1-J, MISS-1-J, Duke-1-A, Duke-2-A, 
Duke-3-A, Duke-4-A, Santee-1-A, Santee-2-A, Santee-3-A, Santee-4-A, 
Pump 1-A , Pump-2, and Regulation-1 applicable to Georgia-Alabama-South 
Carolina System of Projects' power for a period ending September 30, 
2007. These rate schedules have been submitted to the Federal Energy 
Regulatory Commission (FERC) in Docket No. EF02-3011-000 with a request 
for approval on a final basis.
    Discussion: Existing rate schedules are predicated upon a June 2002 
repayment study and other supporting data contained in FERC Docket No. 
EF02-3011-000. The current repayment study prepared in March 2003 shows 
that existing rates are not adequate to recover all costs required by 
present repayment criteria. Southeastern is proposing to establish 
rates that will recoup these unrecovered costs.
    Existing rates for the Georgia-Alabama-South Carolina System have 
been in effect since October 1, 2002. Rates contained in FERC Docket 
No. ER02-3011-000 are predicated on a repayment study that did not 
include costs associated with pumped storage units at the Richard B. 
Russell project. Construction of the Russell pumped storage units was 
completed in 1993; however, U. S. District Court in Charleston, South 
Carolina, had issued an injunction prohibiting operation of these 
units. The injunction was entered on May 24, 1988. On May 3, 2002, the 
court dissolved this injunction. The Corps of Engineers declared these 
units commercially available on September 1, 2002. As of this date, 
Southeastern must include these costs in its costs for recovery.
    Southeastern is proposing the following rate schedules to be 
effective for the period from October 1, 2003 through September 30, 
2007.

Rate Schedule SOCO-1-B

    Available to public bodies and cooperatives in Georgia, Alabama, 
Mississippi, and Florida to whom power may be wheeled and scheduled 
pursuant to contracts between the Government and Southern Company 
Services, Incorporated.

Rate Schedule SOCO-2-B

    Available to public bodies and cooperatives in Georgia, Alabama, 
Mississippi, and Florida to whom power may be wheeled pursuant to 
contracts between the Government and Southern Company Services, 
Incorporated. The customer is responsible for providing a scheduling 
arrangement with the Government.

Rate Schedule SOCO-3-B

    Available to public bodies and cooperatives in Georgia, Alabama, 
Mississippi, and Florida to whom power may be scheduled pursuant to 
contracts between the Government and Southern Company Services, 
Incorporated. The customer is responsible for providing a transmission 
arrangement.

Rate Schedule SOCO-4-B

    Available to public bodies and cooperatives in Georgia, Alabama, 
Mississippi, and Florida. The customer is responsible for providing a 
scheduling arrangement with the Government and for providing a 
transmission arrangement.

Rate Schedule ALA-1-K

    Available to the Alabama Electric Cooperative, Incorporated.

Rate Schedule MISS-1-K

    Available to the South Mississippi Electric Power Association to 
whom power may be wheeled pursuant to contract between the Government 
and Alabama Electric Cooperative, Inc.

Rate Schedule Duke-1-B

    Available to public bodies and cooperatives in North Carolina and 
South Carolina to whom power may be wheeled and scheduled pursuant to 
contracts between the Government and Duke Power Company.

Rate Schedule Duke-2-B

    Available to public bodies and cooperatives in North Carolina and 
South Carolina to whom power may be wheeled pursuant to contracts 
between the Government and Duke Power Company. The customer is 
responsible for providing a scheduling arrangement with the Government.

Rate Schedule Duke-3-B

    Available to public bodies and cooperatives in North Carolina and 
South Carolina to whom power may be scheduled pursuant to contracts 
between the Government and Duke Power Company. The customer is 
responsible for providing a transmission arrangement.

Rate Schedule Duke-4-B

    Available to public bodies and cooperatives in North Carolina and 
South Carolina served through the transmission facilities of Duke Power 
Company. The customer is responsible for providing a scheduling 
arrangement with the Government and for providing a transmission 
arrangement.

Rate Schedule Santee-1-B

    Available to public bodies and cooperatives in South Carolina to 
whom power may be wheeled and scheduled pursuant to contracts between 
the

[[Page 18620]]

Government and South Carolina Public Service Authority.

Rate Schedule Santee-2-B

    Available to public bodies and cooperatives in South Carolina to 
whom power may be wheeled pursuant to contracts between the Government 
and South Carolina Public Service Authority. The customer is 
responsible for providing a scheduling arrangement with the Government.

Rate Schedule Santee-3-B

    Available to public bodies and cooperatives in South Carolina to 
whom power may be scheduled pursuant to contracts between the 
Government and South Carolina Public Service Authority. The customer is 
responsible for providing a transmission arrangement.

Rate Schedule Santee-4-B

    Available to public bodies and cooperatives in South Carolina 
served through the transmission facilities of South Carolina Public 
Service Authority. The customer is responsible for providing a 
scheduling arrangement with the Government and for providing a 
transmission arrangement.

Rate Schedule SCE&G-1-B

    Available to public bodies and cooperatives in South Carolina to 
whom power may be wheeled and scheduled pursuant to contracts between 
the Government and South Carolina Electric & Gas Company.

Rate Schedule SCE&G-2-B

    Available to public bodies and cooperatives in South Carolina to 
whom power may be wheeled pursuant to contracts between the Government 
and South Carolina Electric & Gas Company. The customer is responsible 
for providing a scheduling arrangement with the Government.

Rate Schedule SCE&G-3-B

    Available to public bodies and cooperatives in South Carolina to 
whom power may be scheduled pursuant to contracts between the 
Government and South Carolina Electric & Gas Company. The customer is 
responsible for providing a transmission arrangement.

Rate Schedule SCE&G-4-B

    Available to public bodies and cooperatives in South Carolina 
served through the transmission facilities of South Carolina Electric & 
Gas Company. The customer is responsible for providing a scheduling 
arrangement with the Government and for providing a transmission 
arrangement.

Rate Schedule Pump-1-A

    Available to all customers of the Georgia-Alabama-South Carolina 
System and applicable to energy from pumping operations at the Carters 
and Richard B. Russell projects.

Rate Schedule Pump-2

    Available to public bodies and cooperatives who provide their own 
scheduling arrangement and elect to allow Southeastern to use a portion 
of their allocation for pumping.

Rate Schedule Regulation-1

    Available to public bodies and cooperatives in Georgia, Alabama, 
Mississippi, Florida, South Carolina, or North Carolina to whom 
regulation service is provided pursuant to contracts between the 
Government and the customer.

Rate Schedule Replacement-1

    Available to all customers in the Georgia-Alabama-South Carolina 
System and applicable to replacement energy.
    The proposed rates for capacity, energy, and generation services 
are as follows:

Capacity: $3.73 per kw per month.
Energy: 9.22 mills per kwh.
Generation Services: $0.12 per kw per month.
Under this scenario, 75 per cent of generation revenues are recovered 
from capacity sales and 25 per cent are recovered from energy sales. 
These rates are expected to produce an average revenue increase of 
$26.4 million in FY 2004 and all future years.
    The rates for transmission, scheduling, reactive supply, and 
regulation and frequency response apply to all four scenarios and are 
illustrated in Table 1.

 Southeastern Power Administration Proposed Rates for Transmission Scheduling, Reactive, and Regulation Charges
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                                                   Transmission     Scheduling       Reactive       Regulation
                  Rate schedule                    charge $/KW/    charge $/KW/    charge $/KW/    charge $/KW/
                                                       month           month           month           month
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 SOCO-1-B.......................................            2.08          0.0806            0.11          0.0483
SOCO-2-B........................................            2.08             N/A            0.11             N/A
SOCO-3-B........................................             N/A          0.0806             N/A          0.0483
SOCO-4-B........................................             N/A             N/A             N/A             N/A
ALA-1-K.........................................             N/A             N/A             N/A             N/A
MISS-1-K........................................            1.88             N/A             N/A             N/A
Duke-1-B........................................            0.87             N/A             N/A             N/A
Duke-2-B........................................            0.87             N/A             N/A             N/A
Duke-3-B........................................             N/A             N/A             N/A             N/A
Duke-4-B........................................             N/A             N/A             N/A             N/A
Santee-1-B......................................            1.52             N/A             N/A             N/A
Santee-2-B......................................            1.52             N/A             N/A             N/A
Santee-3-B......................................             N/A             N/A             N/A             N/A
Santee-4-B......................................             N/A             N/A             N/A             N/A
SCE&G-1-B.......................................            1.01             N/A             N/A             N/A
SCE&G-2-B.......................................            1.01             N/A             N/A             N/A
SCE&G-3-B.......................................             N/A             N/A             N/A             N/A
SCE&G-4-B.......................................             N/A             N/A             N/A             N/A
Pump-1-A........................................             N/A             N/A             N/A             N/A
Pump-2..........................................             N/A             N/A             N/A             N/A
Regulation-1....................................             N/A             N/A             N/A             N/A
Replacement-1...................................             N/A             N/A             N/A             N/A
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


[[Page 18621]]

    The referenced repayment studies are available for examination at 
1166 Athens Tech Road, Elberton, Georgia 30635-6711. Proposed Rate 
Schedules SOCO-1-B, SOCO-2-B, SOCO-3-B, SOCO-4-B, ALA-1-K, MISS-1-K, 
Duke-1-B, Duke-2-B, Duke-3-B, Duke-4-B, Santee-1-B, Santee-2-B, Santee-
3-B, Santee-4-B, SCE&G-1-B, SCE&G-2-B, SCE&G-3-B, SCE&G-4-B, Pump-1-A, 
Pump-2, Regulation-1, and Replacement-1 are also available.

    Dated: March 28, 2003.
Charles A. Borchardt,
Administration.
[FR Doc. 03-9326 Filed 4-15-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P