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At our last board meeting, the board approved the 1997 budget for OPALCO. Most importantly, while the 1997 budget holds our rates constant, it also includes some important new features. First, we are significantly increasing our construction budget (from less than $1 million in 1996 to more than $2 million in 1997). A year ago, we adopted a goal of cutting our outages in half over a five year period. The new budget significantly increases the rate at which we are converting our system to underground to reduce the tree and limb related outages. It also attacks the bad underground wiring which has been causing so many outages. This budget does not solve all of our outage related problems, but it is a definite move in the right direction. We have also significantly increased our budget (from $20,000 to $120,000) to replace poles that are reaching the end of their lives in areas that will not be converted to underground. In 1997, we will continue our aggressive load management program, although the amount that we anticipate spending will be far below our 1996 levels since we have purchased most of the hardware that we need, and our 1997 expenditures relate to installing the load management receivers. We continue to put money away each year for construction of major system improvements such as submarine cables and substations. At the end of 1997, our reserve for these projects will be $800,000, which sounds like a lot of money but is only a small fraction of the $5 million that we are going to need for major system improvements over the next five to eight years. On the technology side, we will be installing a computer network to tie our various computer terminals together to improve intercompany communications as well as better tracking of your comments, calls and questions. 1997 also includes many projects that will not cost a lot of money. During 1997, we hope to get our Internet home page operational. 1997 will also see more of an effort to keep you informed about OPALCO and our various programs - issues that cannot be addressed properly in an OPALCOGRAM. There are many issues from BPA as well as the state, regional and national scene that will take OPALCO time during 1997. The time is gone when we could sit back and count on others to watch out for our interests. We are very active in BPA issues that affect OPALCO, less active in state and regional issues, and not very active on national issues. And last but not least - I will continue these biweekly OPALCOGRAMS. I continue to be surprised and impressed by how many people read them and how useful many of you feel they are in conveying what is happening at OPALCO. I am looking forward to a challenging and rewarding 1997. I hope you are, too.
Doug Bechtel
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