Message-ID: <6609976.1075853248523.JavaMail.evans@thyme> Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2000 04:48:00 -0700 (PDT) From: nella.cappelletto@enron.com To: dpef@blakes.ca, gfl@blakes.com, rek@blakes.com, awm@blakes.com, dwm@blakes.com, mark.haedicke@enron.com, jeffrey.hodge@enron.com, richard.sanders@enron.com, steven.kean@enron.com, richard.shapiro@enron.com, robert.hemstock@enron.com Subject: Project Stanley - History of the Design of the Alberta Power Pool Model Cc: rob.milnthorp@enron.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Bcc: rob.milnthorp@enron.com X-From: Nella Cappelletto X-To: dpef@blakes.ca, gfl@blakes.com, rek@blakes.com, awm@blakes.com, dwm@blakes.com, Mark E Haedicke, Jeffrey T Hodge, Richard B Sanders, Steven J Kean, Richard Shapiro, Robert Hemstock X-cc: Rob Milnthorp X-bcc: X-Folder: \Richard_Sanders_Oct2001\Notes Folders\Project stanley X-Origin: Sanders-R X-FileName: rsanders.nsf PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL SOLICITOR/CLIENT COMMUNICATION Please see the attached memo from Rob Hemstock to Steve Kean and Rick Shapiro for your information. The most noteable items are (a) the Power Pool Participant Behaviour Guidelines published in March 2000, and (b) the history of changes to the Power Pool of Alberta. Regards, Peter Keohane ---------------------- Forwarded by Nella Cappelletto/CAL/ECT on 06/07/2000 10:51 AM --------------------------- From: Robert Hemstock 06/06/2000 02:40 PM To: Steven J Kean/HOU/EES@EES, Richard Shapiro/HOU/EES@EES cc: Peter Keohane/CAL/ECT@ECT, Aleck Dadson/TOR/ECT@ECT Subject: Project Stanley - History of the Design of the Alberta Power Pool Model I understand your call to me yesterday was to inquire about the vision the architects of the Power Pool of Alberta had when they were setting up the Power Pool, and more particularly, whether they envisioned that unsophisticated Pool Participant would be expected to obtain assistance from other more sophisticated Pool Participants to maximize the price that it would receive from the Power Pool for the energy it sold into the Power Pool. I have reviewed the some materials (i.e. AEUB Decisions, Alberta Department of Energy documents) and have found nothing related to this. This is not surprising as these market design issues were considered in Alberta in 1994 and 1995, long before I arrived on the electricity scene in 1997. I did speak to a consultant who was involved in the market design process in the early 1990's named Jim Fitzowich. Jim joined TransAlta in 1986 and then worked for TransCanada Power until January 2000 when he established his current consulting practice. Jim became a member of the Power Pool Council in late 1995 and stayed in that position until May 1998 when an independent Power Pool Council was appointed. Jim and I are both on the Board of Directors of the Independent Power Producers Society of Alberta and I know Jim fairly well. Jim advised that the Alberta electricity industry design was quarterbacked by the Deputy Minister of Energy of the day named Rick Hyndman. Under Rick Hyndman's direction a White Paper was apparently released in October 1994 in which a power exchange regime modelled on the exchange regime in the U.K. was thoroughly discussed and proposed for Alberta. According to Jim Fitzowich, this White Paper was the initial blueprint for the Alberta market design. I have met Rick Hyndman a few times and understand he left government a few years ago and is also a consultant. I left Rick a message to call me and I intend to ask him to send me a copy of the White Paper and also inquire about the nature of his consulting work. On a related note, attached is an email I sent to Bill G and John L in March 2000 advising them of the new Power Pool Participant Behavior Guidelines that were added to the Power Pool Rules in March 2000. You can see the original notice of the rule change received from the Power Pool is also attached as are the actual Participant Behavior Guidelines (see Change 11a). While I appreciate the determination of whether an offence occurred under the Competition Act would be independent of the compliance, or not, with the Power Pool Rules, I think it is noteworthy that the Power Pool incorporated these entirely new set of Participant Behavior Guidelines only recently, and after the acts that are the subject of Project Stanley had occurred. You should also be aware that there is a document on the Power Pool website (http://www.powerpool.ab.ca/index_links.html) entitled "Summary of Power Pool Rule Changes" that appears to list all the rule changes that have occurred since the Power Pool began operation in 1996. Regards, Rob ---------------------- Forwarded by Robert Hemstock/CAL/ECT on 06/06/2000 01:24 PM --------------------------- From: Robert Hemstock 03/23/2000 12:19 PM To: Bill Greenizan/CAL/ECT@ECT, John J Lavorato/CAL/ECT@ECT cc: Aleck Dadson/TOR/ECT@ECT, Peter Keohane/CAL/ECT@ECT Subject: Alberta Power Pool Rule Changes Attached are a number of Pool Rule Changes that I expect will be approved today by the Power Pool Council. The most noteworthy change is the addition of the new Rule 2.9 - "Participant Behavior Guidelines". The Participant Behavior Guidelines contain very broad language but are intended to provide market participants with guidance from the Pool on the types of activities that it considers to constitute anti-competitive behavior. It identifies three categories of "undesireable practices" namely: (a) sharing of competitive information, (b) abuse of dominant position (which includes physical or economic witholding of facilities or energy so as to adversely impact upon the efficient, fair, and openly competitive operation of the market), and (c) other practices including conduct that would cause a material change in price. In my view, this new Rule does not extend any additional powers to the Power Pool or the Market Survelliance Administrator beyond the already broad authority given to the MSA in Section 9.1 of the Electric Utilities Act. It is my sense from conversations I had with stakeholders at the IPPSA Conference that the Power Pool's motivation behind this new Rule was to send a message to Powerex and the PPA Owners that the Power Pool is concerned about their market power and is/will be monitoring them. We need to be aware of these rules so we can mitigate the risk of our business not being conducted within them. It may be worthwhile for Peter and I to consolidate the relevant EUA provisions and the Pool Rules into one reference resource for the commercial group. Regards, Rob ---------------------- Forwarded by Robert Hemstock/CAL/ECT on 03/23/2000 09:56 AM --------------------------- Kayan Brown on 03/17/2000 10:40:30 AM To: "'jenifer@telusplanet.net'" , "'pbartsch@utilicorp.com'" , "'albert.lai@atcoelectric.com'" , "'ian.luco@atcoelectric.com'" , "'peter.wong@atcoelectric.com'" , "'jon.burkinshaw@atco.ca'" , "'guido@cgeco.com'" , "'john@canhydro.com'" , "'jrenter@city.lethbridge.ab.ca'" , "'mstroh@city.lethbridge.ab.ca'" , "'rodcro@city.medicine-hat.ab.ca'" , "'alr@city.red-deer.ab.ca'" , "'rolands_muiznieks@cdncxy.com'" , "'rvesak@prpddmi.com'" , "'PGSCHUBERT@dow.com'" , "'jdpollock@duke-energy.com'" , "'dlowther@enmax.com'" , "'rraymond@enmax.com'" , "'kwillis@enmax.com'" , Robert Hemstock/CAL/ECT@ECT, "'adunn@epcor-group.com'" , "'rob.baker@eal.ab.ca'" , "'bobt@fcec.com'" , "'ghowell@compusmart.ab.ca'" , "'v.mantey@mercuryelectric.com'" , "'eric_thompson@pancanadian.ca'" , "'mike.macdougall@powerex.com'" , "'jsmith@renaissance.ca'" , "'gbaden@coral-energy.com'" , "'bfriesen@saskpower.com'" , "'billvr@telusplanet.net'" , "'claude_benoit@transalta.com'" , "'bob_low@transalta.com'" , "'marvin_mah@transcanada.com'" , "'bourns@greenenergy.com'" cc: Subject: Power Pool Rule and Code Changes Proposed for Council Approval <> <> <> <> Attached please find a covering letter and above-noted documents including your feedback to be presented for approval at the upcoming Council meeting scheduled for March 23, 2000. Please note the covering letter is in "Text Only" format and the Rule and Code changes are in "MS Word" format, because the Rules and Code changes would not be legible in "Text Only" format. If you can read Text only documents please call the Power Pool and we will fax you the attached information instead. Thank you. Kayan Brown Power Pool. - Rule Changes Proposed_Mar23.doc - Rule Changes Proposed letter_Mar23.doc - Rule Changes Proposed letter_Mar23.txt - Code Changes Proposed_Mar23.doc