As part of the Pacific Northwest Electric Power Planning and Conservation Act (Northwest Power Act), the Residential Exchange Program (REP) was created to provide residential and small farm customers of Pacific Northwest (regional) utilities a form of access to low-cost Federal power. Under the REP, BPA "purchases" power from each participating utility at that utility's Average System Cost (ASC). The Administrator then offers, in exchange, to "sell" an equivalent amount of electric power to the utility at BPA's PF Exchange rate. The amount of power purchased and sold is the qualifying residential and small farm load of each utility participating in the REP. These benefits are passed on to the residential and small farm customers of the utility.
To calculate an ASC, BPA reviews the participating utility’s resource costs and loads as directed in the 2008 ASC Methodology (18 CFR Part 301, Sales of Electric Power to the Bonneville Power Administration; Revisions to Average System Cost Methodology).
Under the 2008 ASCM, a utility's ASC is generally determined by dividing the utility's allowed cost of resources (Contract System Cost) by the utility's total system load (Contract System Load). The resulting quotient of this calculation is the utility's ASC. These ASCs are determined in an ASC Review Process administered by BPA in the year prior to the commencement of BPA's wholesale power rate proceeding. Utilities participating in the REP must submit ASC filings and all associated documentation in the ASC Review Processes in accordance with the filing procedures set forth in the 2008 ASCM and the Rules of Procedure for BPA’s ASC Review Process.
Utility ASCs are not determined in BPA rate proceedings. Instead, ASCs are determined in a separate administrative process that BPA conducts pursuant to the procedural rules of the 2008 ASC Methodology. Utility ASCs, once established in the ASC Review Process, are one component used by BPA in the rate proceeding to determine individual utility REP benefits.
Once ASCs for all participating utilities are determined for the corresponding Exchange Period, ASC Final Reports will be published at this website.
2008 ASC Methodology