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What I am leading up to is, things really have been busy here at OPALCO. In the 7 years that I have been manager, I don't think we have ever had a period where there have been as many major issues on the table. At the top of the list is the Bonneville Power Administration rate case, which is finally coming to an end after two years of near constant effort on our part. At our last board meeting, we signed an agreement with BPA that puts an upper limit on what they can charge us for power from October 1st of this year until September 30th of 2001. This cap is about 15% below what they are charging us today. This translates into a 6% decrease in our rates to you. On top of this, we have our ongoing negotiations with BPA for a replacement submarine cable and their desire for us to install a load management system to ease our winter peak loads on their cables. On another level, we have the Regional Power Review that is reviewing the role of BPA and other utilities in the Northwest. The recommendations of this group will be acted upon by Congress and will drastically alter the region's electric industry - not just BPA, but the investor-owned utilities such as Puget Sound Power and Light and even the distribution utilities like OPALCO. Unfortunately, it has been very difficult for us to find the time to participate at a meaningful level in these deliberations. We are also facing the probability that retail wheeling will become a reality in Washington - if not in 1997, then probably in 1998. This is going to open up far more customer choice than you have ever had before as to who will supply the electricity you will use. There will be many companies vying to sell you electricity. OPALCO has to position itself to survive in this new competitive environment. As you have probably been following in the papers and these OPALCOGRAMS, we have adopted an aggressive program to reduce the number of power outages in half over a five year period. I am not confident that we will be able to make that goal. I do feel confident, however, that we will reduce the number of overhead outages by half during this five year period. Right now, it has taken a lot of time to get this program up and going. There are about a million other things that we are working on, so when you ask me how things are going and I tell you that things are busy, feel free to talk to me about your favorite topic or just say "OK", and we won't have a lengthy discussion. In the meantime, don't forget our Annual Meeting on Saturday the 27th. We look forward to seeing you on the ferry. Remember, if we don't get 100 members to attend, we won't have a quorum, and we will have to schedule the Annual Meeting all over again. If you think I am busy now, if I have to do the Annual Meeting all over again, I am going to be really busy. See you Saturday.
Doug Bechtel
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