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Ms. Brody provided some examples of testimony that may be heard from LEC at e this evening's public hearing. She said LEC will claim that their operating costs are lower. Ms. Power said that EWEB's cost of service over the period of 1984-1987 has been lower in all areas. Ms. Schue asked if the overall averages are from all kinds of customers or from different types. Ms. Power said that EWEB does have different rate categories for each class of customer because that is the legal standard and it could be assumed that LEC does likewise. Mr. Winnerfeld said that all utilities have large number of fixed costs that will not change with the amount of sales, but the utility business has found out in the last 10 years that a lot of the costs in new load growth were variable costs, not fixed costs. Ms. Bascom said it was difficult to read LEC's tables. She said it was complicated to compare rates. D. Quality Comparisons Mayor Obie asked for a contrast of the quality of service provided by each utility. Ms. Brody said Metro Partnership testimony will give emphasis to the stabili- ty and reliability of EWEB and how new development prospects are very inter- ested in long-term stability and reliability. Ms. Power said backup systems provide continued service in the case of power outages. She said that EWEB averages 20 minutes per customer per year of power outages, while the rural cooperative average is over three hours per e customer per year. Ms, Power introduced Ken Beeson to talk about backup systems, Mr, Beeson said that EWEB has a backup at three levels: at the transmission system, between substations, and on the electric distribution feeders. He said that loop backup at the substation level means that one substation transformer can be lost and the load can still be carried and one distribu- tion feeder and the other half of the the loop can be lost with the load still being carried. He said the transmission lines are also looped, which is called single contingency reliability. Mr. Beeson said LEC1s is a rural electric system and he is familiar with the system LEC is planning for the Willow Creek area. He said that at the trans- mission level, they will tie into an existing Bonneville transmission line which would have the same reliability. At the substation level, they would install a single transformer and then add a second one later; this will not have the same level of reliability, At the feeder level they plan to loop 15-20 percent of their feeders to a second transformer later; the feeders planned for the Willow Creek area are "radial feeders", or feeders without backup. Mr. Beeson summarized by saying that he is not sure there would be the same level of reliability at the distribution and substation level, but they would have it at the transformer level, Ms. Ehrman asked if EWES would also have to put a substation there. Mr. Beeson said there is already the Willow Creek substation and the Bertelsen e MINUTES--City Council Work Session August 8, 1988 Page 5