Subject: Weekly Report for November 16
From: [email-masked]
To: [email-masked]
Cc: [email-masked], [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 15:07:03 -0800 (PST)

Power Supply
All plants are running smoothly with exception of Colstrip #4  - Colstrip 4 has a boiler tube leak that was discovered  yesterday.  The steam leak is impinging on other tubes and will create  further damage if not scheduled off-line soon.  Unit has been scheduled for  36-hour outage starting a ramp down today at 2200 hours MST and will off-line at  midnight.
 
Once the market settled down the prices have been steadily  sliding in both gas and electric.  We have been trading around our assets -  playing the spark spread.
 
We are actively pursuing parking and lending agreements with  Reliant and El Paso, discussing terms for a purchase of firm power or tolling  from Engage, and evaluating purchase of non-firm power from  Enserco.
 
Finance
PGE was downgraded by Fitch this week to BBB+ from A on  secured debt and BBB from A- on unsecured debt.  Fitch"s actions move them  out of step with Moody's and Standard & Poors.  The downgrade will cost  PGE 20 to 40 basis points on our short term borrowing lines.  Fitch's  actions are directly related to Enron's downgrade and the acquisition of PGE by  NW Natural.  We are watching the other two rating agencies to see if they  take similar actions.
 
PGE is still locked out of the long term debt market as a  result of Enron's situation and we are currently being advised that we will not  be able to enter the capital markets for long term debt until next year at the  soonest.
 
Human Resources
We have been holding small group employees meetings with  officers all week to get information out to our employees about the Enron /  Dynegy transaction and to discuss the status of their 401K plan.  The  employee response has been one of anger and disgust as many of them have lost  significant value in their 401K as a result of being heavily invested in Enron  stock.
 
Regulatory Affairs
We expect to receive an order on UE-115 (general rate case)  reconsideration request next week.
 
PGE, Sierra Pacific, Nevada Power, Avista, and Montana Power  jointly filed with FERC the TransConnect rate filing which requests  performance based rates for a for-profit Transco into which PGE and other  western utilities could contribute their transmission assets.  The  rates are pro forma in nature and no action on transferring any assets  to TransConnect will be taken until we evaluate the business case that results  from FERC's decision and guidance on our pro forma rates.
 
PGE / NW Natural Transaction
We continue to work with NWN on the OPUC filing which was to  be filed today but has been delayed until early next week.  The most  significant issue is the rate plan and what share of the savings from the  transaction will be given to customers and what is the form of that  refund.  We are also working on the FERC and SEC applications which will be  filed in the future.
 
Integration Planning has started with the Integration Team  focusing on an overall project plan for the effort.