6.2. ERMUSR 07-11-2006 - Laserfiche WebLink

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is hopefully going to be an example of joint planning for a city's benefit, where the city would eventually have the option of ownership in the upgrades. Third, CMMPA has been working with Paul Reising and Bob Jablon to resolve with Xcel the termination of its black box settlement. This settlement was terminated by Xcel on Mar 31 of this year. The settlement included significant transmission credits, and CMMPA is now negotiating for a reinstatement of some portion of the credits. CAPX 2020-the "faith-based organization" continues. CAPX has sent out a significant press release today (June 9) about the first transmission project it plans to construct -the "Brookings to Twin Cities" project. This is a 345 kV line estimated to be in service 2012, and MMTG will be one of the investors. It represents a significant investment for us - roughly $26 million, with a MISO approved Return on Equity of 12.38%. There is a lot of discussion among the CAPX members about how the underlying agreements for ownership and cost recovery will work. CAPX has recently engaged the law firm of Fulbright and Jaworski to work with all CAPX members. MMTG will be using Kaela Brennan from McGrann Shea as our legal contact point for CAPX. CAPX expects to have a Memorandum of Understanding in place that has been signed by all participants within the next two-three months. It hopes to have project agreements signed by the end of 2006. As CAPX struggles through the significant questions of how exactly it will work together, so we MMTG members must also figure out how our investments will work in CAPX. It is possible (even likely) that we will have opportunities for investments beyond our load ratio share. Alliant and ATC: After Alliant failed to develop legislation to satisfy Iowa Utilities Board concerns over jurisdiction over ATC facilities, progress seems to have stalled between ALT and ATC. The Organization of MISO States meeting at the Iowa Utilities Board: This is a parallel concern for MMTG. The MISO OMS represents regulators from all the states in which MISO operates. The OMS recently filed comments to FERC giving its opinion on long term transmission rights, and frankly the comments were not friendly to load serving entities like municipal utilities, who need long term transmission rights to parallel their investment in baseload and renewable generation. Without these rights, municipal utilities could face huge price risk getting their generation delivered. Anyway, the chairman of the IUB, John Norris, has initiated an advisory group of Iowa utilities to advise the Iowa representatives to the OMS about Iowa concerns with MISO. The first meeting was held June 2 in Des Moines. While it was mainly a set of presentations from MISO and IUB staff, it does hold promise for a better discussion about our MISO cost/benefit concerns and protection of our consumers. We took advantage of John Norris' offer to send him written comments and we did so, taking exception to the OMS comments on long-term rights. Please contact me with any questions or concerns: akimber e,iamu.org or 515 289-5213