Appendix — Otter Tail Power Co. v. United States
Supreme Court brief1973
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Index
APPENDIX—VOLUMES I AND II.
Index for Volume III of Appendix (Exhibits)
is found in Volume III.
The Revelant Docket Entries in the Proceeding Below...
Plaintiff's Complaint
Defendant’s Answernrnrnr
Memorandum and Order of the United States District
Court, District of Minnesota, Sixth Division, dated
September 9, 1977777 eee ee
District Court Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law,
dated October 22, 19711
Original Judgment of the District Court, dated
October 22, 1977 ũłõ¶⁴i .
Appellant’s Alternative Motions for a New Trial or for
Amended and/or Additional Findings of Fact and for
Amended and/or Additional Conclusions of Law, and
to Amend the Judgment Accordingly ...............
Order of the District Court ruling on Appellant’s said
Post-Trial Alternative Motions, dated November 10,
/// ee 6 eae ⁰¶ eee ek eG eka ee
Amended Judgment, dated November 10, 1971
Notice of Appeal to the Supreme Court of the United
Index
TRANSCRIPT OF TESTIMONY
AND PROCEEDINGS *
OPENING STATEMENTS
Mr. Andersen A. 213 LT. 2
—: gitiiaecasisees 44220 L742
GOVERNMENT’S WITNESSES
Harland Martinson:
Direct examination ................. A.286 [T. I. 100]
Cross- examination A. 299 [T. I. 127]
Edward C. Spethmann:
T I hoses A.312 [T.I1,2]
Harland Martinson:
Cross-examination (cont’d) ............ A.321 [T.IL14]
Redirect examination A.329 [œT. II. 27)
Hubert Lewis, Jr.:
T / ² M ĩðͤ 8 A. 331 [œT. II, 20]
Cross- examination A. 332 [æT. II, 32]
Ernest Woytassek :
Direct examination A.344 [T. II, 49]
Cross- examination A. 351 [T. II, 60]
Redirect examination A. 357 [œT. II, 68]
Elaine Waples:
Direct examination A. 359 [T. II. 71]
Cross- examination A. 362 [T. II, 78]
The Transcript of the Proceedings is contained in 10 volumes, one
volume for each day of trial, each of which starts over with page 1.
As a result, the Transcript page numbers must be related to the
volume number. The pagination of the transcript references will be
in the following form— (T. II. 2).
ii
—
Index
Frank J. Belinskey:
Direct examination A. 373 [CT. II, 92]
Cross-examination ................... A.375 [T. II, 94]
Joseph O. Perino:
Direct examination A. 378 [T. II, 100]
John S. Holten:
Direct examination .................. A.394 [T.III,2]
Cross-examination .................. A.404 [T.ITI,15]
James L. Grahl:
Deen A¾—§«âĩ ] ĩ˙ A. 430 [T. IV, 2]
Cross- examination A. 440 [T. IV, 15]
Redirect examination ............... A.475 [T.IV,63]
William E. Trommershausen :
Direct examination A.491 [T.V,2]
Crodfexamination .................... A.550 [T.V,85]
Redirect examination A.633 [T.VI,83]
Recross- examination 8 A. 640 [T. VI, 93]
OPENING STATEMENT
hc sis ig Mes aad A.651 [T.VI,110]
DEFENDANT’S WITNESSES
Albert V. Hartl:
Direct examination A. 656 [T. VI, 119]
Cross- examination A. 752 [T. VII, 116]
Redirect examination ............. A. 823 [T.VIII,95]
Recross- examination A. 844 [T. IX, 10]
Redirect examination A. 849 [T. IX, 16]
iii
Warren Nye:
Direct examination
Cross-examination
Redirect examination
Recross-examination
Walter A. Morton:
Direct examination
Cross-examination
—
1 A.851 LT. IX 20
—— A. 893 [T. IX. 50
. A. 912 LT. IX. ion
ere A.917 [T.IX,113]
—— A.919 [T. X 2
1 A. 965 [T. X. 66]
GOVERNMENT’S EXHIBITS*
GX Exhibits 1 through 294 were all offered and received on
page A.285 [T. I, 108] and are described on the Government
Exhibit list.
Gx Offered Received Description
206-A A.534 A.534 Map indicating Han-
[T.V,63] [T. v.63] kinson and Elbow
Lake. N
206-B TDU A.904 Map.
(T.1X,95] (T.1X,95]
25 N A.288 Elbow Lake Council —
(T.1,111] (T.1,112] Minutes, 9/8/62.
596 Azo A.291 Various Elbow Lake
(T.1,113] (T.1,116] Council Minutes
from 6/6/60 to
5/7/65.
297. 2 A.295 Letter, Martinson to
(T.1,120] (T.1,121] Wolter, 7/8/65.
298 A.294 A.295 Letter, Wolter to
(T.1,120] (T.1,121] Martinson, 8/10/66.
* This list of Exhibits and their descriptions is compiled from the
introductory pages of each volume of the Transcript prepared by
the Court Reporter.
iv
Index
GOVERNMENT’S EXHIBITS
GX Offered Received Description
599. A298 A298 Electric power case
(T.1,126] (T.1,126] study for Village
of Elbow Lake.
300, A315 A316 Letters Re: Colman.
301 ~=—«[T.11,4] (T.11,4]
302, A.315 A.315 Letters Re: Alexan-
303 = [T.II,4] IT. II, 4] dria.
Na, A.319 ABI9 Letters between
305, [T.11,13] (T.11,13] Elbow Lake and
and Basin Electric.
306
8 32 A.332 Contract for electric
IT. II, 321] [T. II, 32] service, Bureau of
Reclamation and
Colman.
J 32 A.332 Re: Litigation
(T.I1,32] (T.11,32]
309 X32 A.332 Report of Buell &
(T.I1,32] [T. II, 32] Winter, Minutes
of City Council
of Colman.
NI A344 A344 Exhibits Re: Woytas-
thru [T. II, 49] ILT. II, 49] sek's testimony.
317
318 X81 81 Exhibits Re: Waples’
thru [IT. II, 75] [T. II, 75] testimony.
329
v
——
Index
GOVERNMENT’S EXHIBITS
GX Offered Received Description
330 A376 A.376 Letter from Bartel, ~
[T.I1,97] {T.I1,97]
331 IIe A.376 Waples, Minutes,
LIT. II, 97] LT. II. 971]
332 A.376 A376 Waples, Letters. ~~
thru [T.II,97] [T.11,97]
338
339 Withdrawn 3
Ja «A876 NN Waples, Letter.
{T.11,97] [T. II, 971]
JI INN NN Waples, Agreement.
{T.11,97] {T.11,97]
345 A376 A.376 Waples, Letter.
{T.1I,97] {T.I1,97]
n A316 Waples, Contract.
[T. II. 97] [T. II. 97]
344 A379 A379 Perino, Letters.
thru [T. II, 1011 LT. II, 1011
348
349 III A381 Hickerson, Letter.
(T.1,104] [T-11,104]
350 ASS : A.384 Re: George Danforth.
thru [T.I1,107] II. II, 110]
356
357, A. 400 A. 404 Letters by Holten to
358 II. III, 10] ILT. III, 14] Woytassek and
Healey.
vi
Index
GOVERNMENT’S EXHIBITS
GX Offered Received Description
350 A. 400 A. 404 Letters by Holten
thru IT. III, 10] ILT. III, 14] Re: City of Colman.
371
N22 A. 400 A. 404 “Signature Certifi-
(T.I11,10] (T.111,14] cate”.
N A.400 A404 ~ “Faegre and Benson”
(T.111,10] LT. III, 14] “$95,000 Electric Rev-
enue Bonds of 1964,
City of Colman.”
374. A. 414 — —
thru [IT. III, 28] —
426
374 «AAD
thru [T.IV,69]
434
A.487 Exhibits 374 thru
LT. IV, 82] 434 deseribed on
Government's
Exhibit list.
A487
[T.IV,82]
A487
LT. IV, 82]
A. 487
LT. IV, 82]
vii
Index
GOVERNMENT’S EXHIBITS
GX Offered Received Description
435 A495 A.495 Systems Map Central”
LT. V. 71] [T. V. 7] Power Coop.
J 5 A.495 Systems Map UPA.
IT. V. 7] [T. V. 7]
487 A.495 A.495 Systems Map CPA,
IT. V. 7] IT. V. 7]
438 A.495 A. 495 Systems Map East
[T. V. 7] [T. V. 71] River Cooperative.
9 NA A.508 Transmissions Map
[T. v. 11] LT. V. 27] Otter Tail Service
Area.
440 XXI X12 Transmissions Map
[T. V. 32] [T. V. 32] Otter Tail Service
Area.
441 A.512 XI Otter Tail Report
[T. V. 321] ILT. V,. 33] Filed 1970 with
FPC.
442A B12 A518 Otter Tail Report
ILT. V. 32] ILT. V. 33] Filed 1960 with
FPC.
443 ~=Adi4 A.b15 Bureau of Reclamation
ILT. V. 35] ILT. V, 36] Map 1970, Missouri
River Basin Power
System.
J 769 A.769 Statement of
(T.VIII,16] (T.VIII,16] A. V. Hartl.
viii
. Inden
GOVERNMENT'S EXHIBITS
Gx Offered Received Description
a A-817 Speech by A. V. Hartl
[T. VIII, 86] [T. VIII, 86] 11-18-70.
N A975 A975 Government Exhibit
[T. X, 80] LT. X, 80] List, Exhibits
1 thru 294.
7 A. 975 A. 975 Government Exhibit
[T.X,80] LT. X,. 80] List, Exhibits
374 thru 434.
DEFENDANT’S EXHIBITS
DX Offered Received Description
121 291 Elbow Lake Council
(T.1,116] (T.1,116] Minutes, 8/7/61.
.. aan A.291 Elbow Lake Council
[T.1,116] [T.1,116] Minutes, 8/17/61.
+”) A.291 “Elbow Lake Council
[T.I. 1171] [T. I, 1171] Minutes, 6/4/62.
7 A.291 A.291 Elbow Lake Council
(T.1,117] (T.1,117] Minutes, 8/6/62.
5 A.292 A.292 Elbow Lake Council —
(T.1,117] (T.1,117] Minutes, 6/7/65.
ix
Index
—
DEFENDANT’S EXHIBITS
DX Offered Received Description
6 N A320 “Letter by Nye to vi-
LT. II. 14] LT. II. 14] lage of Elbow Lake.
Tas NIN N28 Letters to Martinson, ,
LT. II. 21] Lr. I. 21]
8 X85 85 Letter by Woytasse
LT. II, 71] LT. I. 711 i
TX IIT X88 X88 Letters. N
[T. II, 66] CT. II, 66] 4
12 NI IA Minutes
LT. II. 66] LT. II. 66]
Ts N88 88 Letter, 2-14-64.
LT. II. 66] LT. II, 66]
14 A. 356 A. 356 Articles of Incor-
LT. II. 66] Lr. II, 66] poration.
I Addo X58 Bylaws.
[T.11,66] LT. II. 66]
16 A.367 A.367 Contract.
[T.11,83] [T.11,83]
TIF A.367 A.367 Agreements.
[T.11,83] LT. II, 88]
19 A368 A.368 Letter.
(T.11,84] [T.11,84]
20 — — Same as UNA
BI — — Same as Y
tw Adi XI
[T.III, 32] LT. III, 32]
22 Withdrawn on A. 429 [T. III, 50] Same as GX 237
X
Index
DEFENDANT’S EXHIBITS
Dx Offered Received Description
1 A. 460 A.460 July, 1970, Booklet
[T.IV,43] ILT. IV, 43] published by
Missouri Basin
Systems Group.
1 A. 460 A. 460 North Central Power
[T. IV, 43] ILT. IV, 43] Study.
% A489 A.489 Campaign material.
thru [T.IV,85] [T. IV, 86]
37
ar or Identification A. A
38 A. 610 A. 611 Source Map.
[T. VI. 51] [T. VI. 521]
39 A.610 A.611 Source Map.
(Tv1,52) [T.VI,52)
% A726 A.727 Otter Tail Chart.
[T.VII,81] [T.VII,81]
41 A738 A.739 Otter Tail Chart.
(T.VII,97] [T. VII. 97]
I 25 X82 Engineering Study.
[T. VIII, 98] ILT. VIII, 98]
(See A. 826 >
(T.VIII,99}.)
42 A.850 A.850 Documentation
thru [T.1X,18] LT. IX. 18] of cases in area
87 of litigation.
Bo X40 A.840 List of REA
(T.1X,4] [T.1X,4] cooperatives.
xi
Index
DEFENDANT’S EXHIBITS
DX Offered Received Description
90 A851 A851 1969 REA Statistical
[T.1X,19] [T.1X,19] Report.
91 A.857 A.858 Excerpts from
[T. IX,. 28] LT. IX, 30] Exhibit GX.-2.
92 A861 A.864 Map. aa
[T. IX, 35] [T. IX, 39]
93 A.861 A.864 Map. cs
[T. IX, 35] [T. IX, 39]
94 A.873 A.873 Study of Power
[T. IX, 52] LT. IX. 52] Supply, Area 26.
95 A.933 A.938 Study and schedules
LT. X, 21] [T. X, 281 of Dr. Morton.
96 A.952 A.952 Study and schedules
[T. X, 47] [T. X, 48] of Dr. Morton.
97 A. 958 A. 958 Study and schedules
[T. X, 56] T. X,. 56] of Dr. Morton.
588 A.975 A.976 List of towns served
LT. X, 81] [T. X, 82] by Co-operatives
at retail.
DX99—Letter from East River to Elbow Lake. Added to
record by Order dated Nov. 8, 1971
8 A. 1211
Otter Tail Dep. Ex. A—Army Engineers’ study. Offered and
received in evidence at A.315 [T.II,6,7]
4.1214
Chart Submitted by the United States Included in Record
by Order dated July 5, 1972
A. 1219
Grahl, Redirect by Anderson 491
The Court: Thank you, gentlemen, for a nice visitation
and education about electric power this week. See you next
Monday at 10:00.
(Whereupon, a recess was taken until 10:00 o’clock a.m.,
June 7, 1971.)
[T. V. 1]
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
DISTRICT OF MINNESOTA
SIXTH DIVISION
(Title Omitted in Printing)
The above-entitled matter came on for trial before the Hon-
orable Edward J. Devitt, Chief Judge of the above-entitled
Court at Saint Paul, Minnesota, commencing at 10:00 o’clock
A.M., June 1, 1971.
The following transcript contains the proceedings of June
7, 1971.
(Appearances as heretofore noted.)
* * * * *
[T. V. 2] June 7, 1971, 10:00 o’clock A.M.
The Court: Good morning, gentlemen.
Mr. Anderson: Your Honor, the government calls Mr.
William Trommershausen as its last witness.
Whereupon,
i
é
f
4
ces
—
492 Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson
WILLIAM E. TROMMERSHAUSEN,
a witness called by and on behalf of the government, being
first duly sworn, was examined and testified as follows:
DIRECT EXAMINATION
By Mr. Anderson:
Q. Would you give us your address, Mr. Trommershausen?
A. My residence address is 1421 Sunset Boulevard, Boul.
der, Colorado.
Q. And would you very briefly give us your educational
background, Mr. Trommershausen ?
A. Iam a graduate with a BS Degree in Electrical Engi.
neering from Oregon State College in 1963.
Q. Are you a registered engineer, Mr. Trommershausen?
A. Yes, sir. I am registered in my state of residence, Colo-
rado, in the State of Minnesota and in 12 other states.
Q. Now, could you trace for the Court your professional
experience in electrical engineering work in a brief way, [I.
V, 3] Mr. Trommershausen?
A. Since graduation in 1963, I have served in planning,
design, construction, supervision of operation and mainte.
nance and management of electric utility systems.
Upon graduation from college I served three years with the
Rural Electrification Administration; then 15 years with the
Bonneville Power Administration in both engineering and
management positions. During Military Service in World
War II, I served as a rehabilitation engineer on hydroelectric
projects and associated transmission facilities in Austria and
Italy.
I joined R. W. Beck and Associates, a consulting engineer-
ing firm in 1955 and have served in the firm’s offices at
Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson 493
Seattle, Washington; Columbus, Nebraska, and was regional
manager of the Denver Regional Office until two years ago
when I was appointed chief consulting engineer of the firm.
I have specialized primarily in long range system and power
supply matters involving extra high voltage transmissions.
I have also supervised numerous finance and feasibility
studies for thermo plants, transmission lines for power dis-
tricts, REA finance cooperatives and municipal systems in-
volving review of wholesale rates in power contracts.
I have served as a member of a consulting team for the U. S.
Joint Committee on Atomic Energy for the original [T. V, 4]
Hanford Nuclear Project.
I have served as an expert witness before courts and com-
missions and have been six times before the Federal Power
Commission.
Several years ago I supervised a river basin survey for the
Holmand Valley in Afghanistan for the State Department,
and in my present position as chief consulting engineer I
assist staff engineers in our lining the complex problems that
come to them in all of the six consulting offices that the firm
now maintains.
[T.V,5] Q. Over the years that you have been associated
with R. W. Beck, have you had occasion to become familiar
with the power supply arrangements in the so-called Missouri
River Basin area?
A. Yes. The Denver office was established in 1961 because
the managing partner of the firm then determined that there
were many power problems in the Missouri Basin and in the
Colorado River Basin, and since 1955, I have very closely fol-
lowed the problems of power supply, and I presume that in
the last 15 years I have met at least 50 times or more with the
/
494 Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson
Bureau of Reclamation office at Boise, Idaho, Denver, Cojo.
rado, and Billings, Montana.
Q. Does your firm R. W. Beck work exclusively for what
have become known as public power-type organizations?
A. No. We broadened our firm considerably to the point
where we now have more than 100 registered professional
engineers on a staff that exceeds 200, and we are able to
handle all types of utility services, whether it be water, sewer,
street drainage, city planning, telephone systems, municipal
systems.
We have done considerable work for state and federal agen.
cies. We have branched out to serve industry. The fact is, |
could name several of the clients we have recently served,
Boeing Airplane Company; Norton Airplane Company of
Massachusetts; I have recently finished an [T. V, 6] assign-
ment with the CF&I Steel Company of Pueblo, Colorado, in-
volving contract review and power supply.
We have served the Sun Oil Company, the Atlantic Richfield
Oil Company, the Gulf Atomic Company and more recently
we have completed one phase of a power supply investigation
for Consolidated Edison Company of New York City.
Q. Are you a member of any professional societies?
A. Yes, I am a member of the National Society of Profes-
sional Engineers and the American Society of Military Engi-
neers. I am a member of Eta Kappa Nu, which is a college
honorary for electrical engineering.
Q. Do you or have you had occasion to publish any papers
that you have written in your field of expertise?
A. Yes, I have had published probably two dozen papers,
more recently a paper that was prepared for the American
Society of Chemical Engineers on the subject matter of inte-
gration of industry and utilities, and also a paper for the
Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson 495
American Society of Mechanical Engineers done jointly with
our mechanical partner John Rossi concerning the develop-
ment of mine mouth generation and extra high voltage trans-
mission; and papers have appeared within the last year in the
Consulting Engineer Magazine and in the American Public
Power Magazine.
Mr. Anderson: I would like to have [T. V, 7] marked as
GX-435, a map of the Central Power Electric Cooperative,
Inc., existing transmission system.
I would like to have marked as GX-436, a systems map of
United Power Association.
I would like to have marked as GX-437, a map of the Co-
operative Power Association.
I would like to have marked as GX-438, a systems map of
the East River Electric Power Cooperative.
I would like to offer those four maps, Your Honor.
(Government’s Exhibits 435 through 438 offered in evi-
dence.) ,
The Court: Absent objection, they may be received.
Mr. Field: 435, 436, 437 and 438, are those being offered?
Mr. Anderson: Yes.
Mr. Field: No objection, Your Honor.
The Court: They may be received.
(Government’s Exhibits 435 through 438 received in evi-
dence.)
Mr. Anderson: I would like now to have marked as GX-
439, a map entitled “Transmission Map of Otter Tail Power
Service Area.” It purports to show municipalities receiving
wheeling service from Otter Tail [T. V, 8] Power Company.
I say that by way of description.
(Government’s Exhibit 489 offered in evidence.)
The Court: Absent objection, it may be received.
496 Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson
Mr. Field: We have some questions about 489 and No. 449
that is coming up.
Mr. Anderson: I have a few questions, too.
Mr. Field: I think I advised you about that.
By Mr. Anderson:
Q. Mr. Trommershausen, looking at GX-439 for identifi.
cation, first of all, can you tell me whether you had any hand
in the preparation of that map?
A. Yes, I supervised the engineer draftsman that prepared
this map.
. Q. ‘Would you in a very brief way explain how your organi-
' gation went about preparing the map? What source materia]
did you use?
A. We used the latest available Bureau 2 Reclamation
transmission map, and the 1969 system map that was provided
to us by the Department of Justice. -
Q. System map of the Otter Tail Power Company?
A. Right.
[T. V, 9] Q. Are there any changes that you would like
to make on GX-439?
A. Yes, there are, there are several changes. The mapping
of congested utility systems is getting to be pretty difficult,
and in some cases the draftsman didn’t make the proper inter-
pretation. Take, for instance, on the top in the middle, you will
see a rather heavy line going from Devils Lake to Langdon.
That’s coded here as being an Otter Tail line, and in reality,
the upper portion of it is owned by Minnkota Power Coopera-
tive. ;
Q. In order for this to be fully accurate, that would have
to be shown as a jointly-owned transmission line?
: eat
A. That is correct.
Q. Jointly owned between Minnkota and Otter Tail?
Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson 497
A. Right. There is another line, looking back,/that would
need coding, if you go over to the left hand, still on top, you
will see Towner and Gardena just north. Now, since prepar-
ing this map and reading the files, I find there is a 115 kv
transmission line there that was built by Central Power Co-
operative and it is under joint use by Central and Otter Tail.
[T. V. 10] Q. So there should be, in order for this to be
fully accurate, there ought to be a fat 115 line running from
Towner to Gardena?
A. That’s right.
Q. And the proper designation of that would be a central
power line which Otter Tail Power Company has use of pur-
suant to a contract?
A. Right.
Mr. Field: Will you just pause a minute to get up to date
here?
Mr. Anderson: Sure.
By Mr. Anderson:
Q. This line is not on the map at all?
A. Now going over to the right side of the map and about
two-thirds of the way down.—
Q. We are still talking GX-439, right?
A. Yes, sir. You find there is a heavy dotted line east and
west that crosses a black line north and south. You see Fergus
Falls at the point of intersection?
Q. That’s this line right here, is that right?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. All right.
A. And look below Fergus Falls you will see a point
marked Elbow Lake. Elbow Lake was not shown on the Otter
Tail maps that I had available but in order to be certain that
[T. v. 11] we could orient Elbow Lake with respect to other
—
498 Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson
towns we put Elbow Lake on this map purely for orientation
purposes. It is not connected to the Otter Tail system.
Q. Now, all the little names of cities here I take it refer
to cities which are served either at retail or receive wheeling
service from Otter Tail, is that correct?
A. As shown on the maps, right.
Q. Yes, sir. I see. Are there any other changes that should
be made on GX-439?
A. None that I know of now.
Mr. Anderson: I offer 439, Your Honor.
(GX-489 offered in evidence.)
Mr. Field: May I inquire with reference to the map too?
The Court: Sure.
Mr. Field: Can you hear me all right from here, Mr.
Trommershausen ?
The Witness: Yes, sir.
Mr. Field: First a question about one of the changes that
you suggested in 439 and that was a line from Towner to
Gardena which you said was a 115 kv line. That line is shown
on the Central Power Electric Cooperative transmission sys-
tem map Exhibit 435, is it not?
The Witness: I have misplaced [T. V, 12] my copy of,
that map.
Mr. Field: We will make them available to you.
The Witness: I see the map. I see the line on the map.
Mr. Field: That’s a Central Power Electric Cooperative
line, is it not?
The Witness: That’s correct.
Mr. Field: Otter Tail owns no part of that line?
The Witness: No. But as I indicated, I understood read-
ing the contracts that Otter Tail had use of the line.
Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson 499
Mr. Field: Then you are suggesting that on Exhibit 439
all lines which Otter Tail has a right to use of should be
shown ?
The Witness: No. If I would do that again, this map would
look as complicated as the original maps I started from, and
I should make it clear that because the other maps have so
much background information on them it was difficult for
me, and I am sure it would be difficult for the Court, to get
an understanding of what the general subtransmission system
of the Otter Tail Power Company was unless we could separate
it from out of the other lines because when we go to the other
maps that are coming up [T. V, 13] which are in reference
here, which have just about everybody’s lines on them, it’s
difficult to get an appreciation, at least for me, as to why the
towns that Otter Tail serves at retail are located.
Mr. Field: I appreciate your comments, Mr. Trommers-
hausen, but we have to do one thing at a time, and as far as
439 is concerned, which is the exhibit we are talking about,
if the Towner-Gardena line was shown because Otter Tail has
right to use it, you would add many, many more lines on 439,
wouldn’t you?
The Witness: Then I will say strike the line.
Mr. Field: That was my suggestion. Do you concur?
The Witness: I concur.
Mr. Field: Now, into some other items that were called
to my attention by our people, Otter Tail’s staff, with refer-
ence to Exhibit 439, and as an example of something that I
have been told occur several times on the map.
Would you concentrate for the moment on the area of Per-
ham and New York Mills which is towards the right side of
the middle of 439?
The Witness: Yes, sir. I find it.
500 Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson
[T. v. 14] Mr. Field: Now, 439 shows two black lines
between Perham and New York Mills which has the legeng
41.6 kv transmission line. Is the map intended to show two
transmission lines between those two towns?
The Witness: As drawn—just let me check. The map ay
shown as we have drawn it does show two lines. I see the
draftsmen had some problems because on your map there js
a gap between Richville, and an extension north of Otter Tail;
on the Bureau of Reclamation map there is shown two lines.
Mr. Anderson: In order that the record show what we are
talking about here, when you talk about the Bureau of Recla.
mation map you are talking about GX-205?
The Witness: That's correct.
Mr. Field: Let's start out with this, Mr. Trommershausen
There is only one line between those two points, isn’t there?
The Witness: Depending upon which map you use as a
reference.
Mr. Field: Well, in fact?
The Witness: Not having been in the field, Mr. Field, we
didn’t check the actual, physical facilities against these maps.
Mr. Field: Well, for the [T. V., 15] moment, just for the
purpose of questions I will ask you to assume there is only one
line between Perham and New York Mills, electric line.
The Witness: Yes.
Mr. Field: I suggest for your consideration that you have
reproduced or your draftsman has reproduced on Exhibit 489
not only an electrical line but a public highway in the same
key that the transmission line is reproduced. That suggested
to me that he took off the highway and also put that in.
The Witness: Well, Mr. Field, I don’t see how that was
possible because the two maps he used 1 have in front of me
and they don’t have any roads on them. So it was a question
Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson 501
of which map was the more accurate, I believe was the prob-
lem that faced the draf tamen. If you say there is only one line
there I will accept that.
(T. v. 16) Mr. Field: There are several similar ones.
I call your attention to some others and see if that helps solve
the problem.
If you will look towards the upper part of the map, St. Vin-
cent to Hallock, running through the towns of Humboldt and
Northcote, do you find that location?
The Witness: Yes, sir.
Mr Field: We seem there also to have two lines indicated
on the map, Exhibit 439, between those points. Do you see
that?
The Witness: Yes, sir.
Mr. Field: Assuming there is only one line there, do you
have any explanation of why the duplication is there? I am
trying to get at the background of your map.
The Witness: Yes. Comparing that, again, to the Bureau
map, that is a draftsman’s error.
Mr. Field: Which Bureau map are you referring to?
The Witness: 206.
Mr: Field: I am looking at our copy of 206 now, and be-
tween those two points there is a yellow line?
The Witness: Yes, sir.
Mr. Field: That is one of the lines between those two
points on 439, is it not?
[T. v. 17] The Witness: That is right.
Mr. Field: Right?
The Witness: Right.
Mr. Field: There aren’t two electric lines shown between
those points on the Bureau map, Exhibit 206, are there?
502 Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson
The Witness: No, there is not, and I can’t explain why
that draftsman put the extra line on.
Mr. Field: Is there any other reference we can look at for
a key as to what happened there?
The Witness: No, sir.
Mr. Field: There was another map that you said you
looked at in preparing this, another source? What map was
that?
The Witness: The company’s map.
Mr. Field: Do you have that?
The Witness: Yes, sir, we have several. This was the one
we started with and this was the one we told the Justice De
partment was so difficult that we didn’t want to start with
this one, and they provided this one (indicating).
Mr. Anderson: Should I mark this?
Mr. Field: I would like to see what the source was. Maybe
we can find the key to what happened there.
[T. v. 18] We furnished you this, 1 suppose?
Mr. Anderson: Yes, you did.
Mr. Field: Could I see the one that you said wasn't so
easy to understand?
The Witness: Yes. This is the source map.
Mr. Field: Probably the draftsman might have used this?
The Witness: Possibly, but that was the map that prompt-
ed me to say that we ought to do somethiig to simplify the |
location of towns because that was difficult to read.
Mr. Field: I think it might help us as to what happened.
Can we mark this?
Mr. Anderson: Les.
Mr. Field: Should I mark it or do you want to? It’s one
of the source maps he used.
Mr. Anderson: You can mark it.
Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson 503
Mr. Field: I will have it marked.
The Court: Is all this going to be helpful to us? Are these
errors significant?
Mr. Field: They might be pointed to by somebody on the
map unless they are corrected.
The Court: I gather that there is a mistake running on
the two lines from Hallock to the border?
[T. V. 19] The Witness: Yes.
Mr. Field: There are several more. That’s the point.
The Court: Why don’t you point them out to him and per-
haps he will admit that they are in error.
Mr. Field: I think this will help. Should I try it?
The Court: He doesn’t seem to need much help. He said
that the draftsman made errors. I don’t think we should spend
too much time if it isn’t a signal thing.
Mr. Field: I will ask him if he concedes the points that
I have in mind.
Will you mark this? ;
(Defendant’s Exhibit 38 marked for identification.)
Mr. Field: Do you concede that the double line between
St. Vincent and Hallock is an error?
The Witness: Yes.
Mr. Field: Do you concede that the same situation is true
between Clyde and Langford, North Dakota?
The Witness: I need some help identifying this.
Mr. Field: Towards the top of sa map [T. V, 20] about
in the middle.
The Witness: I have found it.
Mr. Field: There are two lines there, too. Do you concede
that is an error, also?
The Witness: Yes, that is an error. I see that the drafts-
man may have been confused because your map does show a
504 Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson
second line but it is coded with a different ownership. There
is a second parallel line in the area, but it is coded with a dit.
ferent ownership, so I concede that he misinterpreted that
portion of the map.
Mr. Field: Then if you will look at the situation between
Egan and Trent, South Dakota, and I will ask you if you con-
cede that the situation there is an error as far as those lijies?
The Witness: Yes. He would have the same problem be-
cause there is another parallel line of different ownership, and
apparently he interpreted that from your map as your line.
Mr. Field: I have difficulty hearing you over here.
The Court: He made a mistake, he says.
The Witness: Yes, sir.
Mr. Field: Milbank-Marvin, South Dakota, a similar situa-
tion? I suggest that the Milbank-Marvin line as shown here
is non-existent. There aren’t [T. V, 21] two lines. What you
have shown as a line is not a line. .
The Witness: In checking the two source maps that were
used, I find there is not on the Otter Tail map a line from
Milbank to Marvin. On the Bureau map there is a line, but of
a different ownership. This is an error.
Mr. Field: Now, I call your attention to the Lake Preston-
Hetland, South Dakota, line.
The Witness: From Hetland to where?
Mr. Field: Lake Preston.
The Witness: There is a line of another ownership paral-
lelling the Otter Tail line, and I presume he made the same
error.
May I point out to the Court that the difficulty of reconcil-
ing these two maps is that what was an official source map,
the Bureau map, does not have all the towns named nor the
substations named, and so it is a difficult problem to try to
Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson 505
reconcile the facilities on this map to the other one. That is
why this draftsman had some serious problem.
Mr. Field: The parallel line is the East River Electric
Cooperative ?
The Witness: According to the code on the Bureau map,
that is correct.
[T. V. 22] Mr. Field: If you will look at the Donaldson-
Argyle map?
The Witness: I found it.
Mr. Anderson: Your Honor, would it be helpful if I
marked as an exhibit the most recent Otter Tail map which
shows exactly where the lines are and whether they are two
and one in a given situation and perhaps to the extent there
are minor errors that occurred in the process of transposing
from this map to the one that created those errors will be
corrected by this map. We will see that in the process of taking
things off this map, taking things off the Bureau map, human
error intruded and little mistakes were made. Perhaps for the
sake of clarity I will have marked Otter Tail Power Company
System map dated 1970.
The Court: Is the object of 489 just to show municipalities
served by wheeling contracts?
Mr. Anderson: Right.
The Court: Do you concede those eight or nine places are
served by wheeling contracts? Would that solve the problem?
Sixteen communities. *
Mr. Field: Could I have just a moment, Your Honor?
The Court: Is that right?
Mr. Field: I said just one [T. V, 23] minute.
The Court: Oh, excuse me.
Mr. Field: Well, I think what Your Honor’s inquiry of me
was whether the towns underlined in red on 489 were towns
506 Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson
to which Otter Tail wheeled. I think that is correct, and I think
the contract for the wheeling arrangements are all exhibits
in this case.
The Court: Is that the only purpose of 439? May that be
received with the understanding that’s its sole purpose, it
doesn’t reflect anything else?
Mr. Anderson: Yes. I think that’s fine.
Mr. Field: We don’t need the exhibit if that’s the purpose
of it.
Mr. Anderson: It’s a lot easier than looking through 18
contracts.
The Court: It may be understood there may be some other
errors and double lines.
Mr. Field: There are other errors in other respects too
on the map. .
The Court: Why don’t you withdraw the map? I can take
judicial notice of where the towns are I suppose. They are
there. ©
Mr. Anderson: I don’t know. Are these other errors errors
of moment or do they go to the [T. V, 24] question of whether
in fact these—what we are trying to do is show the Otter Tail
system and show where on the Otter Tail system these wheel-
ing customers are. If we ever, when we get to the substantive
question that we are going to present to Mr. Trommershausen,
we are going to trace the process by which the power is
wheeled to these towns.
The Court: Why doh’t you use Otter Tail’s map. That’s
presumably accurate.
Mr. Anderson: Well, it may be accurate but it doesn’t
show—it doesn’t indicate on the map which towns are wheel-
ing customers. This one does. You have a big—you see on their
map you have—you just have a lot of towns and no way of
Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson 507
knowing which ones are wheeling customers and which ones
are retail customers. The purpose of this map is simply to
show where the 17 wheeling customers of Otter Tail are on
the Otter Tail system, and after we get the map in evidence
then we are hoping to have Mr. Trommershausen very briefly
show the, using that map, show the process by which power
is delivered. If you use the more complicated map which
doesn’t have these towns designated as such it gets much more
difficult to find what we are talking about because there are
so many towns in the area it’s hard to find the particular one
you are dealing with. This one has them underlined.
Mr. Field: The problem we have [T. V, 25] is a map which
is an exhibit in the case which has errors that we pointed out
and some others I think we can point out in other respects, and
all it’s offered for is to show where certain towns are and then
people start looking at the map and interpreting the legend
and all that’s here, and we got to refer and deduct and correct
from some other maps; maybe we understand it, but it’s a
coll plieated process of receiving an exhibit.
The areas that we have in mind that we can point out in-
clude the voltages on 439 for some of the lines that we think
are incorrectly shown. There are some lines that are left off
the map. There are some portions of some lines that have other
ownerships than are shown on the map other than those that
have already been pointed out.
The Court: Your view all those are going to be significant
in some later point, are they?
Mr. Field: I don’t know. We have a map and these things
presented on them as representing facts and they could well
come under the classification of trivia all right but as a lawyer
here with a map being offered in evidence I think it’s my duty
to call attention to the errors that are presented on it. If it’s
—
508 Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson
only offered to show where Detroit Lakes and Alexandria and
so forth are, I think the exhibit is superfluous.
I will follow any line Your [T. V, 26] Honor suggests we
should.
The Court: I don’t know, of course, what's coming. I can’t
offer any guidance. I think we are fooling around with a lot
of minutiae here.
Mr. Anderson: Your Honor, you can rest assured that we
are not going to involve ourselves in anything other than the
question of the wheeling customers. That’s the only point for
which this map is offered. We are not going to involve our-
selves in the discussion as to whether in fact there are two
lines or one line between. two cities up in the middle part of
the map.
The Court: Will the power supply 118 afford it, will that
be significant in any presentation? Mr. Field says some of the
power symbols are wrong too. Will that be significant?
Mr. Anderson: No. I don’t think so.
The Court: May it not be offered for just solely showing
where those 17—not 16?
Mr. Anderson: Seventeen.
The Court: Communities are? It may be received for that
limited purpose, would that satisfy you?
Mr. Field: If we need it for that limited purpose.
IT. V. 27] The Court: Let's assume we do and we will
receive it for that then. All right.
(GX-439 received in evidence.)
The Court: What about the other exhibits?
Mr. Anderson: I would like to have marked as GX-440
another transmission map of Otter Tail Power Company’s
service area. This one has essentially the same as 439 except
this one has an overlay of the Bureau of Reclamation trans-
Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson 509
mission system on the map. The purpose of this is to show the
Otter Tail subtransmission and the overlay of the Bureau grid
upon the Otter Tail subtransmission network.
The Court: Is there an objection to 440?
Mr. Field: It has all the same errors as 439 has.
The Court: Its limited purpose is what?
Mr. Anderson: Is to show the overlay of the Bureau trans-
mission network in the Otter Tail service area.
The Court: That’s its sole purpose?
Mr. Anderson: Right.
[T. v. 28] Mr. Field: Now, we see somewhat where we
are going. We are tying in Bureau overlay with Otter Tail
system on the same map in which all these errors, minute or
otherwise, occur. ‘ 7
Mr. Anderson: It’s pretty hard to get a map as absolutely
perfect in every respect. I have never found one, and you try
to do the best you can. Even the Bureau map here is an official
publication of the Bureau of Reclamation and we discovered
here today there are some minor errors in that. It’s very diffi-
cult to get a map that’s a hundred percent accurate in every
respect, Your Honor, and I think
Mr. Field: Just a moment please, Your Honor. We have
information, Your Honor, which, from which we believe we
can point out additional errors in 440. By additional errors
I mean in the overlay of the Bureau’s lines. They also may be
details but nevertheless they concern the location of some lines
and some substations and some items that are reported to us
to be left out and some voltage errors on the lines and there
is one town left off.
Well, maybe they are details, I don’t know, but they are
things that—we studied these things, they were given to us,
and we have found what occur to be errors to us.
510 Trommershsusen, Direct by Anderson
Now, is there some way—I [T. V, 29] don’t suppose it’s up
to us to take the stand and point out where the errors are. It
should be the person that offered it.
Mr. Anderson: The whole purpose of this exercise, Your
Honor, was an effort by us to take the big Bureau map which
has been marked as GX-205 that shows the whole eastern
division of the Missouri River Basin Project. We blew that
up to show the Otter Tail area, service area, and the other
lines in that general area.
Now, as an aid to the Court, we thought we would be useful
to go a step further and take out the Otter Tail system from
this map and impose on that system the Bureau grid in hopes
that in a general sort of way we could demonstrate to you
what the Otter Tail system looked like in general, what the
Bureau overlay looked like in general, how the two looked
meshed together generally.
Now, as I have said before, it’s a little difficult to transpose
this information from one map to another. We did the best
we could. To the extent they were minor errors we apologize,
but we don’t think those minor errors detract from the overall
purpose of the exhibit.
The Court: Exhibit 206 tells a story, but it isn’t as clear
there as it would be by these details?
Mr. Anderson: Right. And our only purpose, Your Honor,
was to try to take 206, take out [T. V, 30] the extraneous lines,
leaving just the Otter Tail network and the Bureau network
to show in general how those two look together.
The Court: I wonder what that understanding these
others with their minor errors couldn’t be received and then
if there is something of moment that might be prejudicial you
could bring it up later, Mr. Field?
Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson 511
Mr. Field: We can assume that burden if Your Honor
thinks that’s the way we should proceed.
The Court: I gather 206 is an accurate picture of the
whole story, you say it won't be so clear to me unless you take
out some extraneous things?
Mr. Anderson: Yes. It purports to be an accurate repre-
sentation prepared by the Bureau of Reclamation, but you see
there are other system lines in there too, different colors and
whatnot, and we thought that it would be an aid to the Court
to take out all the other lines which are on either side of the
Otter Tail system, some cases traversing it, leaving just Otter
Tail and Bureau so you could see how those two work together.
The Court: Otter Tail in orange on 206?
Mr. Anderson: Right. Down at the bottom there is some
other orange that belongs to somebody else and rather than
scissor this all up some more we made [T. V, 31] this exhibit
440 to try to portray graphically how these two systems look
together.
Mr. Field: May I observe, Your Honor, that Exhibit 206
which shows all of the lines of a certain voltage, I believe, and
includes lines of other suppliers and Otter Tail and the Bu-
reau, the lines of the other suppliers are by no means extrane-
ous. They are a part of the system. They are a part of what
happens in this area.
Mr. Anderson: And they are part of the record too, GX-
206.
Mr. Field: And just isolating Otter Tail and the Bureau,
what you have left is not an electrical operating system nor
does it represent the facts in the case.
The purpose of this last exhibit, of course it’s your testi-
mony, it can proceed as you apparently plan to in the matter,
but I would like to observe as we go along that the entire pic-
—
512 Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson
ture of what lines are in the area is a more factual situation
than to isolate any particular lines.
The Court: Exhibits 205 and 206 have been received in
the stipulation?
Mr. Field: Yes.
The Court: Maybe with that understanding those official
maps show the story and the [T. V, 32] others are only meant
as an aid, would that prejudice you?
Mr. Anderson: Yes. That’s fine.
The Court: The others may be received with that under-
standing. Now, go ahead.
(GX Exhibit 440 offered and received in evidence.)
Mr. Anderson: I would like to have marked two additional
reports filed by Otter Tail with the Federal Power Commis-
sion called Form 1 Report. I have one here for 1970 and I have
one for 1960. The 1970 one I would like marked as GX-441 and
the 1960 as GX-442. These dodiments were prepared by Otter
Tail people and filed with the Commission and are official
records of the FPC and contain the background information
concerning the operations of Otter Tail Power Company, and
we feel it’s useful, and we are going to use these with Mr.
Trommershausen later and we also féel it’s useful to have in
one place a set of figures that both sides can rely upon rather
than each side relying on different figures and coming up with
different numbers because of the different calendar years
involved or whatnot.
We feel this would give us a source of information we would
use in describing Otter Tail’s operations in our brief.
The Court: If there is no objection, they may be received.
TT. v. 38] Mr. Field: If the Court please, I would like
to observe this. We were to exchange proposed exhibits pur-
suant to the pretrial order. These proposed exhibits were not
Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson 513
included in that process, and they are Otter Tail reports, so,
of course, we have access to the information from other
sources being furnished by counsel, and in connection with
studying them as to what connection they may have with the
issues in this case, if they are to be received, we may need
some time to take a look at them to see what application they
may have to this case.
Filing a report is one thing. We don’t have so much trouble
with the 1970 report as the 1960 report. That is ten years ago.
I don’t know what the purpose of the 1960 report is.
The Court: They may be received.
(Government’s Exhibits 441 and 442 received in evidence.)
Mr. Field: We have the 1970 report but not the 1960
report.
Mr. Anderson: We will have a copy of the 1960 report
made, hopefully by the end of the day if we can get access to
the Xerox down here. But we will do that.
Finally, I have had marked as GX-443, a map prepared by
the Bureau of Reclamation dated 1970 [T. V, 34] entitled
‘Missouri River Basin Power Systems.” This map is nothing
more than an updated version of GX-236. At the time we pre-
pared GX-236, which we had testimony from Mr. Muller on,
we did not have the 1970 version of the map. In the interest
of accuracy, we secured it and we would like to have this put
into the record to update the information.
Now, perhaps before I offer it I ought to ask Mr. Trommers-
hausen a few questions about it.
By Mr. Anderson:
Q. Mr. Trommershausen, you will note there are some red
dots on that map. Did you place the red dots on there?
A. Yes.
Q. Can you tell us what those red dots signify?
514 Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson
A. They represent, based upon the latest information that
I had available, the points at which contractually the Bureay
of Reclamation system and the Otter Tail system are now tied
together. I might point out that there are in some cases multi-
ple connections at some of these substation locations. You have
to refer to the contract and more detailed drawings to find
out what those are. But this, again, represents the location of
the principal substations that are interconnected.
Mr. Anderson: I should also note for the record that at
the very top of the document there is a little red dot and next
to it it says “Interconnections [T. V, 35] between Otter Tail
and the Bureau of Reclamation.” That sentence was typed on
the document by the Department of Justice secretary. It was
not part of the document as prepared by the Bureau.
I offer GX-443, Your Honor.
(Government’s Exhibit 443 offered in evidence.)
Mr. Field: I comment again, Your Honor, this is a new
exhibit that we haven’t seen before this morning. If the exhibit
is offered to show where the red dots are, and apparently they
are the same on Exhibit 236— Are there any differences there?
Mr. Anderson: This document is a much clearer—I will
give Your Honor a copy of 236, which is the earlier exhibit,
to compare it with Exhibit 443. We think 443, in addition to
the updating, shows a clearer picture, a better map, and I
think— ;
Mr. Field: Well, I am not sure that I am going to object.
I just asked, are the red dots the same on the two maps?
Mr. Anderson: I think they are.
Mr. Field: A cursory review looks as if they are. I am just
asking because I have just seen this new one this morning. It
was just handed to us.
Is that true?
Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson 515
IT. v, 36] The Witness: Are you asking me, Mr. Field?
Mr. Field: Yes, if I am privileged to ask you.
The Witness: Yes, it’s true. However, I would point out,
and perhaps counsel wasn’t advised, on the more recent map
that the Bureau of Reclamation provided, there is a line be-
tween Valley City, Forman and Summit which has been com-
pleted since the other map was prepared. So in respect to the
area in which we are studying, in addition—Well, the dots are
the same. There is this added line, Mr. Field.
Mr. Field: We are familiar with that item.
We have no objection to 443.
The Court: It may be received.
(Government’s Exhibit 443 received in evidence.)
By Mr. Anderson:
Q. Using GX-443 and GX-205, GX-205 being the bigger
Bureau map and GX-448 being a smaller Missouri Basin
Power Systems map, would you first, Mr. Trommershausen,
indicate to us generally where the Bureau of Reclamation
power is produced? Where does it come from? I am talking
now solely in terms of power marketed in the Eastern Division
of IT. v, 37] the Missouri River Basin Project?
A. On Exhibit GX-205, if you will look at the top center,
you will see a reservoir which will help us identify, showing
the Fort Peck project. That is the most westward project in
the Eastern Division. 5
Then let's follow down the river. The next reservoir to the
east is the Garrison reservoir. Then when you go south from
the Garrison reservoir you will see the Oahe reservoir. Then
Fou will see in the center of South Dakota Big Bend reservoir
with a big concentration of reservoir transmission lines at
Fort Thompson, and then proceeding south you come to a
reservoir and dam called Fort Randall, and below that dam
4
—
816 Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson
you will find a reservoir at Gavins Point, and there is a gen.
erating plant there. Those are the main stem dams of the
Corps of Engineers system that produces power that is mar-
keted by the Bureau of Reclamation.
The Bureau of Reclamation has two additional projects in
this region. One is the Yellowstone project and you will see
it if you go south from the original Fort Peck project down
to almost the Wyoming border, you will see a dam called Yel.
low Tail. The output of that project is generally divided 50-50
between the Eastern Division, which we are now speaking of,
and the Western Division.
CT. v. 38] Then if we move on up to the left and almost
* to the Continental Divide on the upper Missouri River, near
the State Capital of Helena, we see a dam called Canyon Ferry.
That project is also a 50-megawatt project, part of the power
supply of what the Bureau calls its Eastern Division.
: Q. I take it that the power that is produced at these Bu-
reau facilities is marketed generally to the east and south of
those facilities, isn’t it?
A. The bulk of the market is to the east and south, but
there are, of course, as shown from the map, loads served
enroute and all over the States of North and South Dakota and
Nebraska.
Q. That power is marketed as is shown on GX-205 east-
ward to a point in Minnesota, I take it?
A. Yes. The Bureau map has, as far as I can remember,
has also shown the eastern power market for hydro power to
that area that lies west of the gray line that is shown on map
205, starts up at the Canadian border and goes down to the
Kansas border.
Q. Now, using GX-205 and 206, I take it that the basic
Bureau of Reclamation transmission grid is shown in red on
those two maps, is that true?
Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson 817
A. That is correct.
Q. Now, what is the principal function of the Bureau
transmission network, Mr. Trommershausen ?
[T. V. 39] A. The principal function of this network is
to deliver the hydro power to the Bureau’s market, and that
market is made up basically of the so-called preference cus-
tomers, but the grid, as was previously discussed, makes ef-
fective interconnections with the transmission networks of
all of the utilities, public and private, in the Missouri Basin.
These connections were made at the periphery of the market-
ing area and throughout the Missouri Basin whenever it’s
beneficial and justified.
Q. What voltage are the bulk of the transmission lines in
the Bureau network, Mr. Trommershausen?
A. I don't have access to the exact mileages of each voltage
class. I would say that the basic network for delivering bulk
power supply to load centers is 230 and the 115 kv transmis-
sion lines. Just recently, however, the Bureau of Reclamation
found it necessary to go to a higher voltage, and as you will
see on the bottom of 206, a dotted line with square dots con-
nected with light lines, that is a new 345 kv line, extra high
voltage that the Bureau built to deliver hydro peaking power
in the Nebraska area.
I might also say, if you look over in the lower right-hand
corner, you will find Sioux City, and at that point you will see
two transmission lines labeled 161 kv. That is an intermediate
voltage level between the 230 kv level and the 115 kv level, and
the Bureau selected that to [T. V, 40] accommodate the pri-
vate utilities in Iowa, in Western Iowa that wanted to inter-
connect with the Bureau transmission grid.
Now, the Bureau does own a small amount of 69 kv trans-
mission line and in the Fort Peck area some 34.5 kv. These
516 Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson
you will find a reservoir at Gavins Point, and there is a gen.
erating plant there. Those are the main stem dams of the
Corps of Engineers system that produces power that is mar-
keted by the Bureau of Reclamation.
The Bureau of Reclamation has two additional projects in
this region. One is the Yellowstone project and you will see
it if you go south from the original Fort Peck project down
to almost the Wyoming border, you will see a dam called Yel-
low Tail. The output of that project is generally divided 50-50
between the Eastern Division, which we are now speaking of,
and the Western Division.
[T. v. 38] Then if we move on up to the left and almost
to the Continental Divide on the upper Missouri River, near
the State Capital of Helena, we see a dam called Canyon Ferry.
That project is also a 50-megawatt project, part of the power
supply of what the Bureau calls its Eastern Division.
Q. I take it that the power that is produced at these Bu-
reau facilities is marketed generally to the east and south of
those facilities, isn’t it?
A. The bulk of the market is to the east and south, but
there are, of course, as shown from the map, loads served
enroute and all over the States of North and South Dakota and
Nebraska.
Q. That power is marketed as is shown on GX-205 east-
ward to a point in Minnesota, I take it?
A. Yes. The Bureau-map has, as far as I can remember,
has also shown the eastern power market for hydro power to
that area that lies west of the gray line that is shown on map
205, starts up at the Canadian border and goes down to the
Kansas border.
Q. Now, using GX-205 and 206, I take it that the basic
Bureau of Reclamation transmission grid is shown in red on
those two maps, is that true?
—
*
Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson
A. That is correct.
Q. Now, what is the principal function of the Bureau
transmission network, Mr. Trommershausen?
[T. V. 39] A. The principal function of this network is
to deliver the hydro power to the Bureau’s market, and that
market is made up basically of the so-called preference cus-
tomers, but the grid, as was previously discussed, makes ef-
fective interconnections with the transmission networks of
all of the utilities, public and private, in the Missouri Basin.
These connections were made at the periphery of the market-
ing area and throughout the Missouri Basin whenever it’s
beneficial and justified.
Q. What voltage are the bulk of the transmission lines in
the Bureau network, Mr. Trommershausen? ous
A. I don’t have access to the exact mileages of each voltage
class. I would say that the basic network for delivering bulk
power supply to load centers is 230 and the 115 kv transmis-
sion lines. Just recently, however, the Bureau of Reclamation
found it necessary to go to a higher voltage, and as you will
see on the bottom of 206, a dotted line with square dots con-
nected with light lines, that is a new 345 kv line, extra high
voltage that the Bureau built to deliver hydro peaking power
in the Nebraska area. f
I might also say, if you look over in the lower right-hand
corner, you will find Sioux City, and at that point you will see
two transmission lines labeled 161 kv. That is an intermediate
voltage level between the 230 kv level and the 115 kv level, and
the Bureau selected that to [T. V, 40] accommodate the pri-
vate utilities in Iowa, in Western Iowa that wanted to inter-
connect with the Bureau transmission grid.
Now, the Bureau does own a small amount of 69 kv trans-
mission line and in the Fort Peck area some 34.5 kv. These
—
518 Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson
latter two voltages I would consider as a sub-transmission
voltage, and I might point out that there is another error in
our basic map, because the Bureau line between Edegely and
Forman is not shown with a voltage designation, and he as-
sumed it was a 115 kv line. Actually, it is a 69 kv line. This,
again, represents the difficulty of anybody preparing a com-
pletely up-to-date map and getting all the details on it.
[T. v, 41] Q. Now, is the totality of the Bureau of Rec.
lamation transmission network commonly referred to as a
transmission system?
A. Yes. As distinguished from a subtransmission system,
I would call the present voltage levels that I discussed except-
ing the 69 and the 34.5, I would call that the basic Bureau
transmission grid.
Q. Would you explain for the Court the difference between
a transmission system and a subtransmission system?
A. Yes. The basic transmission system that’s laid out for
any major utility is that system that is designed to transmit
what I prefer to call bulk power supply. What I mean by bulk
power supply, I mean blocks of power, 25, 50, a hundred and
larger amounts of power.
The purpose of the bulk power supply system is to move
power to the load centers in the most efficient, the most reli-
able and the least costly manner. The bulk power transmission
system does not, however, enable the Bureau or any utility
having such a system to reach the ultimate market.
Q. And how does subtransmission fit into that?
A. Well, the subtransmission system is the device, if you
will call it that, by which power moves nearer to the point of
use. In other words, there generally is interposed between the
bulk transmission system and a city, town or [T. V, 42] indus-
try a subtransmission system.
Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson 519
I have reference in this case to the term municipal gate. A
subtransmission system would be used to take power from a
load center on a bulk system to the municipal or to another
type of customer that the Bureau has in the Missouri Basin.
The subtransmission system would take power from the bulk
power supply system to two or three or more selected points
of delivery in each of the counties in which the rural electric
cooperatives are located.
So, in other words, the subtransmission system breaks down
to a lower voltage the power supply from the bulk system and
brings it to a point where it has to go through what is called
a distribution system in order to get to the retail customer.
Now, the distribution systems are of different types and
designs. There are some 2300 volt distribution systems still
used in many towns in the Missouri Basin. There are many
12,500 kv distribution systems in use both in rural areas for
cooperatives and for municipal distribution. There is now
_coming into wider use in certain of the sparser areas a voltage
level which is 24.8 kv, and to the best of my knowledge in the
Missouri Basin that has been used primarily by rural coopera-
tives.
Q. Bringing all of that into the context of this case, would
it be proper to assume that the Bureau transmission IT. V.
43] network is a bulk power supply transmission network?
A. Yes, it is, but I should make this qualification. That
as generally happens there are instances where a substation
can serve two purposes. A bulk power supply substation can
serve two purposes. It cannot only step down to provide power
into a local subtransmission system, but it can serve loads of
cities if they are close enough to make a connection to the bulk
power supply system and there are, I am sure, a number of
situations where the substation is close enough, a Bureau sub-
—
520 Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson
station is close enough to a town or a cooperative that it can
serve those two customers without going through a subtrans-
mission system.
Q. Now, in this eastern region system of the Missouri
River Basin Project, does the Bureau of Reclamation own its
own subtransmission network?
A. Generally no. I mention the small amount of 69 kv and
34.5 kv. The Bureau has elected in this area in contrast, say,
to the Bonneville area, the Bureau has elected to use under a
wheeling arrangement the subtransmission system of the
existing public and private utilities in the Missouri Basin
market area.
Q. Now, looking for a moment at GX-443, and those points
of interconnection at the point of reference here, generally
speaking, at a point of interconnection between the Bureau
high voltage system and a private utility whose [T. V, 44]
subtransmission is going to be used by the Bureau, is there
. generally located there what’s known as a substation?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Could you very briefly tell the court what the function
of a substation in that context is, what does it do?
A. A substation is an electrical installation that serves
several purposes. Primarily it serves as a point at which you
can reduce the voltage from the bulk transmission voltage in
the area to the transmission voltage in an area. Take, for
example, if vou will, a simple substation called Rolla.
Q. That's indicated on GX-443, is it not?
A. That's right. Near the Canadian border. It's the most
northerly Bureau station. That substation has for its sole pur-
pose as far as I can determine stepping down power from the
Bureau’s 115 kv transmission line that goes Leeds to
Rolla running north, stepping down that voltage to two voltage
Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson 521
levels, one to 41.6 kv for a connection to the Otter Tail Power
Company subtransmission system and also a transformation
down to 12.47 kv for service to Baker Cooperative.
Now, this is one general use of a substation. If we take a
look at a substation at Devils Lake, which is convenient, that
substation serves two purposes. It serves as a switching point
to switch the Bureau’s transmission line from Leeds to Lakota
and also from Devils Lake down to [T. V, 45] Carrington and
Jamestown. In other words, this substation serves a switching
facility which is necessary for system reliability. It permits
a two-way power supply in case of difficulty.
Q. Well—
A. This substation also steps down to provide a connection
with a subtransmission system of both Otter Tail and Minn-
kota Power Cooperative.
Now, in the major other larger 1 you would step
down from 230 to 115 so as to provide an additional power
capacity in the 115 grids which is a sort of a second step in
the transmission grid.
The Court: Excuse me, gentlemen. We are going to recess
until 2:00 o’clock. I am sorry to have to discommode you, but
I must make a commencement speech to the William Mitchell
College of Law tonight. In connection with that I have to go to
Minneapolis for a luncheon today so it will give you a little
more time. We will recess until 2:00 o’clock.
(W upon a recess was taken until 2:00 o’clock P. M.,
June 1.)
[T. V. 46] (June 7, 1971, 2:00 o’clock P.M.)
(Appearances as heretofore noted.)
Whereupon,
~
—
522 Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson
WILLIAM E. TROMMERSHAUSEN,
having been previously sworn, resumed the stand and testified
further as follows:
DIRECT EXAMINATION
(Cont’d)
By Mr. Anderson:
Q. Mr. Trommershausen, would you define for us what
the term wheeling means in the electric power industry?
A. Yes. Wheeling is an operation wherein one utility uses
the facilities of another utility to move electric power energy
from one place to another. This is usually done under a con-
tractual arrangement, either short or long term.
Q. Now, are there different types of wheeling, different
ways in which wheeling is actually accomplished?
A. Yes. Now that we are getting very complex intercon-
nected network systems, wheeling can be used wherein power
moves directly from one point on an electric system to another.
Another type of wheeling in which the movement of power
is accomplished is through what is called displacement. In this
process, an agreed upon amount of power or a proper [T. V,
47] amount is put into one area of an interconnected system
and it is used there. An equal amount of power or an agreed
upon amount from another source of generation is used to
supply a load. . ;
Maybe I can make it more clear by an example, a hypotheti-
cal, the Bureau wants power to go, let’s say, to the Forman
area, which is a known location on the Bureau grid. If it were
direct wheeling power it would come from the nearest Bureau
generator and go from that generator, let’s assume Garrison,
Wannen enen Direct by Anderson 523
to Forman. But, now, when you get into a network operation,
it’s possible that the Bureau power would not have to go to
Forman, it would be used within the Otter Tail and other
systems in the Garrison area, and power from one of Otter
Tail’s generating plants would go to Forman because that is
closer. ö
So this is one of the keys to power pooling in which power
does not have to go the longest distance. Power goes, actually,
thé shortest distance and power gets commingled and it is ac-
counted for on a metering and bookkeeping basis.
Q. In other words, if I have this right, under one type of
wheeling, the power is put into, say, for example, the Otter
Tail system here at Point A, is actually transported over that
Otter Tail line to the customer?
A. Right.
T. v. 48] Q. Is that what you call the actual delivery?
A. Yes.
Q. The other type, the displacement type of wheeling, as
I understand, is where a certain-block of power is put into the
Otter Tail system at a point of interconnection with the Bu-
reau and an equivalent amount of power is delivered elsewhere
on the Otter Tail system by Otter Tail to the Bureau customer?
A. Yes. I think perhaps an exhibit you put in this morning,
it occurs to me, may better explain this phenomenon. That is
Exhibit 456, which is United Power Association. That is the
number that is on here.
Q. I think you have got the wrong number there.
Mr. Field: 486 is United Power.
By Mr. Anderson:
Q. 486 is the number:
A. If I can refer to Exhibit 436, this is probably as good
an example as one could find on displacement, because it was
——
524 Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson
one of the major schemes worked out in the Missouri Basin.
On the map on the left, you will see the plant called Stanton,
That is a relatively new generating plant owned by United
Power Association. They built a transmission line to connect
to the systems of Northern States and Otter Tail in the Minot
and Devils Lake area and with [T. V, 49] Northern States in
the Grand Forks area.
Now, the output of the UPA plant is used to meet the load
requirements of these two companies in North Dakota and
an equivalent amount of power used there is delivered in that
area crosshatched over on the right side from plants of Otter
Tail and Northern States to meet the loads so that power does
not have to travel all the way from Stanton to this area. |
think that is a good example of delivering power by displace-
ment.
Q. From an engineering standpoint, why do wheeling
arrangements make sense?
A. There are several answers to that question. One, they
avoid duplication of facilities.
Q. What do you mean by that?
A. Well, the alternative to using a wheeling arrangement,
using someone else’s subtransmission system, is to build a
duplicate transmission line and engineers are hardpressed
these days and are becoming more so by proliferations of
transmission lines crossing the countryside, taking up valuable
rights-of-way, so from an engineering standpoint, it is desir-
able to make the maximum use of all existing facilities before
new duplicating facilities are needed.
LT. V, 50] Q. I think I interrupted your answer. You had
given us one of the reasons why wheeling made sense from
an engineering standpoint?
Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson 525
A. The second reason is related to service reliability. An
inspection of the maps before us show that all the systems in
the Missouri Basin have matured rather remarkably, I would
say, in the last 10 to 15 years to the point where there is now
loop service both on a bulk transmission grid and on the sub-
transmission grid. When I say a loop service, that means we
have completed the transmission loop, and so that a failure
of a portion of the line does not cause an outage for the entire
area. ;
If you are going to build a duplicating facility to bill from
A to B, you would have a radial line which would be—which
would subject the customers at the end of that line to complete
outage, whereas if you had, the alternative would be to extend
the line to another place where you could effect a connection
with a bulk power supplier so as to provide two-way feed or
circuits, and then, I think thirdly, there is a matter of the best
use of capacity.
Now, one of the problems facing engineers in designing
transmission when you have in mind reliability and th: avoid-
ance of proliferation of facilities is that you want to build a
line that has enough capacity in it so that it takes care of
future load growth. Engineers nowadays in my [T. V, 511
opinion can no longer build lines for five year needs and then
build a second line at thé-end of that period. You have got to
choose a conductor size on a voltage level and build a capacity
into a facility so that you can at least take care of ten year
growth, and so it is advisable with that basic fundamental,
design fundamental, it is desirable to have arrangements with
your neighbors or others whereby the surplus capacity may
be used as early as possible on a reasonable basis because if
you build duplicate facilities, both lines have surplus —
in them for a longer period of time.
526 Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson
Q. Well, are the wheeling arrangements which the Bureau
makes with utilities so that the Bureau has access to the sub.
transmission networks of these utilities, are these wheeling
arrangem nta predicated upon the existence of excess capacity
in the subtransmission system of the IOU’s?
A. Yes, they are. And the contracts I have reviewed and
have worked with with my clients in the Missouri Basin are
usually on a four year surplus capacity notice basis. If I could
explain that. The wheeling agent gets a request from the Bu-
reau and that request will give him the load forecasts each
year for four years down the road, and the wheeling agent is
then required within a time specified within the contract to
say whether he has assured capacity in the existing facilities
to make that wheeling arrangement to the [T. V, 52] full
amount of the need for the four year period, and if not, ar-
rangements will have to be made to provide the increased
capacity. I might say that in the early years I was fearful that
four years was not enough time to work out alternative plans,
but I may say that, surprisingly enough because of so many
joint studies being made and people having knowledge of each
other’s capacity and problems, that I don’t know of any in-
stances where the four year surplus capacity notice basis has
caused a hardship; and so I think that it’s reasonable in the
future to consider that wheeling service can be done to the
satisfaction of both parties on a four year surplus capacity
notice.
Q. In designing a subtransmission system, does a utility
in your opinion customarily plan to have excess capacity in
its transmission network, subtransmission network?
A. Yes. And I think that’s increasingly so and several
ways of achieving this. Taking an existing system is one if
the configuration of the structures aren’t proper you some-
—
7
—
Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson 527
times can go to a higher voltage with the same poles. Maybe
you need new cross arms, certainly need new insulators.
The second method is in having loop circuits you can take
part of them out of service. You can increase the conductor
size. You can replace the existing conductor with larger size
conductor and a new arrangement that’s coming into being
is called bundling of conductor.
[T. v. 53] Bundling of conductor is simply adding a sec-
ond conductor and tying it in with fixtures to the existing
conductor and in this way increasing capacity of lines.
The new lines being built, in my experience, are being built
with every increase in conductor size because of the problem
that we are facing about in securing right of ways for dupli- i
cating facilities. N
Q. Now, is it in your judgment desirable for a utility
which has excess capacity in its subtransmission facilities to
enter into wheeling arrangements?
A. Yes. Because of the added revenue that you obtain from
the wheeling service.
Q. If you didn’t enter the wheeling arrangement you have
excess capacity which wasn’t being used?
A. That’s correct.
Q. Now, turning to the transmission arrangement between
Otter Tail and the Bureau of Reclamation specifically for a
few moments, and using GX-443 as an illustration, would you
tell the Court what the function of that wheeling, of that
transmission arrangement is insofar as the delivery of power
to Bureau customers is concerned?
A. Yes. This map shows the points at which the Bureau
is prepared and in fact does deliver firm electric power and
energy into the transmission and subtransmission systems
of the Otter Tail Power Company for redelivery by Otter Tail
—
528 Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson
[T. v. 54] to the preference customers of the Bureau of Rec-
lamation in Otter Tail’s service area, and in addition, these
facilities make it possible for the Bureau from time to time
to deliver some other commodities/to the Otter Tail Power
Company. /
For instance, the Bureau has from time to time surplus
dump hydroenergy, and Otter Tail has been a substantial pur.
chaser of this commodity over the past 20 years for the benefit
of the Bureau and the benefit of the company; and I believe
that there is reference in the files that the Bureau has sold
short term emergency or maintenance power to the Otter Tail
Power Company. This is another advantage of the arrange-
ment and the interchange arrangement between the Basic
Bureau system and the Otter Tail system.
Q. Insofar as the delivery of power over the Otter Tail
system to Bureau preference customers is concerned, I take
it in looking at GX-443 what you are saying is that the power
flows from the Bureau over the main Bureau grid to these
little red dots, these little points of interconnection between
Otter Tail and the Bureau, then from there to the ultimate
Bureau preference customer is accomplished over the Otter
Tail subtransmission network?
A. Subtransmission and transmission. Otter Tail has some
115 kv and 230 kv that is also involved in the overall power
transfer scheme but basically that’s correct.
[T. V. 55] Q. Now, focusing specifically on the City of
Hankinson, North Dakota, and using GX-206 as a guide, per-
haps the first thing we ought to do is point out where on GX-
206, at least, possibly where Hankinson is located.
A. To the best information available to me, Hankinson
is located about an inch due east of Forman on Exhibit 206.
It can be represented as being an orange circle right next to
Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson 529
a heavier orange line and also next to a blue circle on the right.
Mr. Anderson: I wonder, Your Honor, if it might be
easier, I think it would be easier for us to proceed here if Mr.
Field and I could just quickly agree as to where Hankinson
is on this map and put a circle around it and we will have one
map which has a circle on it, and we will all know what we are
talking about.
The Court: I have it designated, according to his descrip-
tion.
Mr. Anderson: This is the circle we put on.
The Court: Is there a circle there now?
The Witness: There is a yellow circle there now.
By Mr. Anderson:
Q. Is it a dot?
[T. V, 56] A. No.
Mr. Anderson: This is the reason we made the other map
up, Your Honor, because the cities aren’t shown on this one.
The Court: Mr. Field will maybe be tolerant if we use the
other one. What number is that that shows it?
Mr. Anderson: Exhibit 440.
The Court: I see Hankinson, yes.
Mr. Field: The circle which counsel put on Exhibit 206,
is this the official map?
Ur. Anderson: Yes. That is not the one in the record. May-
be we could give it a special marking, 206-A.
Mr. Field: There is an orange dot and a blue dot side by
side. Where you put the circle is where Hankinson is, accord-
ing to your information and the blue dot is an RSR substation,
I believe? 3
The Witness: Yes.
Mr. Anderson: Perhaps before we go any further here
4
—
530 Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson
we should have Mr. Trommershausen explain for us what
these little different colored dots signify.
By Mr. Anderson:
Q. Would you do that?
A. Referring to the code on the original map from [T. V,
57] which this insert was taken—
Q. GX-205?
A. 205, those are symbols for substations and they are
color coded to give some assistance on ownership. But the
problem is that there are so many utilities that the same color
code had to be used for several. But as far as we are concerned
here, that yellow dot is represented as a part of the Otter Tail
system.
Q. The little blue dot next to it, I take it, is RSR?
A. That is correct, or some other ownership.
Mr. Anderson: Mr. Jaeger tells me that we keep saying
yellow whereas in point of fact it is orange.
By Mr. Anderson:
Q. Would you agree with that?
A. I would agree with that. I am color blind.
Q. Assuming that the town of Hankinson wants to set up
a municipal power system, and assuming that the first thing
it looks at is the possibility of self-generation, supplying its
~ own power, in your opinion, Mr. Trommershausen, does self-
generation represent a feasible type of power supply for a
town such as Hankinson?
A. No. At the present time, the standard type of generat-
ing equipment for a town of that size, the utility needs of a
town of that size would either be a relatively [T. V, 58] small
gas turbine or Diesel engines, and we would be taking a step
backward in this day and age, where we are trying to put in
large efficient units, trying to meet the air pollution and
Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson 531
water pollution standards, where we are developing major
transmission grids, it would be a step backward to now set
up an isolated operation, carry our own reserve generation,
by having two units to serve the needs of one, and unless there
were other. serious factors such as a very unreliable power
supply or exorbitant cost, I would not recommend that a town
the sige of Hankinson attempt to proceed with an operation
with local isolated generation. 3
Q. Suppose the town decided it wanted to try to buy some
power at wholesale from Otter Tail. Would you show the
Judge how delivery of power sold at wholesale by Otter Tail
would be accomplished to the City of Hankinson, using GX-
206, if you would?
A. Well, Hankinson is now served by an existing 41.6 kv
transmission lines that extends from Forman, eastward to
Wahpeton. That line is now serving the Hankinson load and
it would be the logical facility to continue serving that load
on a wholesale basis.
Q. Now, suppose the town decided it wanted to become a
wholesale purchaser of power as a preference customer from
the Bureau of Reclamation. Starting with GX-443 and even-
tually moving to 206, would you show the Court how [T. V,
59] delivery of power would be accomplished in that circum-
stance? ;
A. Well, delivery of hydro power would probably come
from the Garrison uhit over the 230 kv system to Jamestown.
Q. You are talking about the Bureau’s system?
A. Yes, and then over the Bureau’s 115 kv system from
Jamestown to Forman, and at Forman the Otter Tail system
is interconnected, Otter Tail 41.6 kv system is interconnected
and power could move from Forman where it would leave the
Bureau system and go into the Otter Tail system and go east-
532 Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson
ward over the existing Otter Tail 41.6 kv north; that is, phys.
ically it could so travel.
Q. Now, suppose the town chose to attempt to purchase
power at wholesale from RSR Cooperative. Would you, using
those same two maps, 443 and 206, would you show us how
the power in that sort of arrangement would be brought to
the town? ‘
A. Well, RSR, as I understand it, is a member of Central
Power Cooperative. So I presume that RSR would make ar.
rangements with Central, who, in turn, would make arrange.
ments with the Bureau so that Bureau power would go into
the Otter Tail system at Forman for the account of Central
and be delivered over Otter Tail’s 41.6 kv system to the RSR
substation, at which point the power would be under the own-
ership of RSR, and they, in turn, would deliver it to Hankin
son.
IT. v, 60] d. Finally, suppose the town decided that
another way of getting the power needed was to build a line
from the town to the Forman substation. Could you give us
your opinion as to the feasibility of a town such as Hankinson
building the line itself to effect an interconnection between
the town and the Bureau substation at Forman?
A. Well, in the first place, there are already two parallel
lines between Forman and Hankinson. You can’t tell from this
map and I don’t know personally how far apart the heavy
orange line is north of the existing 41.6 kv line.
Q. They are both Otter Tail lines?
A. Yes. So by inspection of this map there would have to
be a third line going from Forman to Hankinson, and that
line, again, would be a radial facility unless it was extended
by arrangement to a point where it could connect to another
y 4
Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson $33
facility of equal capacity so that in case the line failed, service
could be brought in from the other direction.
a Assuming it was just a line built from Forman to
Hankinson?
A. Yes, sir, the cost of such a line built only for the pur-
pose of serving the existing Hankinson load and reasonable
load growth would be, in my opinion, too high to be considered
by the town of Hankinson.
q. Well, have you made an estimate as to what the cost
would be to Hankinson of constructing a line from Hankinson
[T. V, 61] to the Bureau substation at Forman?
A. Yes, I have, and I must preface by remarks by stating
that these are preliminary cost estimates because I have not
been in the field to check the construction conditions. We do,
however, keep a record of construction costs and we have what
we call a construction cost manual which was last prepared
in 1968 and needs some updating because of inflation.
So I assumed a 89-mile single pole 41.6 kv transmission line
using 266.8 MC MACSR conductor. The 1968 cost of that line
would be about $7800 per mile. Right-of-way might possibly
cost a thousand dollars a mile, engineering and overhead $500
a mile, for a total cost of $9800. I think it would be reasonable
seem ir for the period 1968 to the present time five percent
per year, which makes a cost of $10,700 per mile. That multi-
plied by 39 miles would cost the city about $418,000, round.
Now, at the Hankinson end you would initially put a rea-
sonably small substation there. I have here a two and a half
to three and a half megawatt substation, 41.60 kv to 12.5 kv
at an estimated cost of $57,000 field cost, plus escalation, plus
engineering, overhead and interest during construction for
a cost of $81,000, and you need a terminal connection at the
Forman substation to the Bureau grid. It’s not known whether
534 Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson
the Bureau would furnish this or [T. V, 62] whether under
present conditions Hankinson would have to provide it. Based
on escalated costs, I believe that terminal would cost about
$61,000. Now, the total cost of those three facilities that |
have mentioned would be about $560,000.
Q. That is just to get the power to the town? The town
will still have to build a distribution center?
A. That is correct. These are wholesale delivery facilities,
Q. Now, moving to the town of Elbow Lake, Minnesota,
the first thing we ought to do here is to see if we can figure
out which one of these orange dots on GX-206 is close to El-
bow Lake. Perhaps we can do that by referring to GX-440 and
439 which shows all the towns.
IT. v, 63] Mr. Anderson: Mr. Field and I have consulted
on the circle and we are agreed that the circle is as I put it
right here on GX-206. I think, Your Honor, maybe I better
mark this document which has these two circles on it as GX-
206A so the record will show what we are talking about.
Let the record show I’m offering as GX-206A a map which
has two circles which have recently been placed upon it by me,
one showing the location of Hankinson, North Dakota, and
the other showing the location of Elbow Lake, Minnesota.
(GX-206A offered in evidence.)
The Court: Absent objection, it may be received.
Mr. Field: No objection.
The Court: It may be received.
(GX-206A received in evidence.)
The Court: Will you indulge me for a moment since I am
the sole fact trier here, and I manifest my judicial ignorance
by going back again to Hankinson and see if I understand
things right. Is it Hankinson here?
Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson 535
The Witness: Right here.
The Court: Over here?
The Witness: Here.
[T. V., 64] The Court: Does the RSR line now serve
Hankinson?
The Witness: The Otter Tail 41.6 kv line serves Hankin-
son. RSR—
The Court: Forman?
The Witness: RSR is the owner of these two substations
which are also connected to the Otter Tail system and are now
being served by wheeling from the Otter Tail system.
The Court: I see. I understand. Sorry. Thank you.
By Mr. Anderson:
Q. Now looking at Elbow Lake, Mr. Trommershausen, the
first question is whether, suppose Elbow Lake decided to sup-
ply its own power, set up its own generator, operate it and
supply its own power and distribution system, in your judg-
ment does such a power supply arrangement make sense for
a city the size of Elbow Lake?
A. Except for, as an interim arrangement, as I mentioned
with respect to Hankinson, in my judgment, a city the size of
these towns, I mean systems the size of these towns cannot
expect to operate a viable, financially successful distribution
system with long-term dependence on diesel generation.
Q. Suppose the town then decided to explore the possibility
of buying power at wholesale from Otter Tail. [T. V, 65]
Would you explain to the Court how delivery of power at
wholesale from Otter Tail could be effected to Elbow Lake?
A. Well, as shown on the Exhibit GX-206 there is now a
41.6 kv transmission line going directly or very close to Otter
Tail. This is the line that originally—excuse me, by Elbow
Lake. This is the line, same identical line that originally
536 Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson
served Elbow Lake when it was a retail customer of Otter Tail
Power Company; and after Elbow Lake was unsuccessful in
its attempt to buy wholesale power, the connection was severed
and Elbow Lake now operates as an isolated, independent
system dependent solely on two diesel engine generators.
Q. Well, now, suppose Elbow Lake decided to become a
preference customer of the Bureau and buy its power whole-
sale from the Bureau. Would you trace for the Court the pro-
cess by which delivery of Bureau power would be accomplished
to Elbow Lake?
A. Well, as in the case of Hankinson there is a physical
electrical path at 230 kv from the Garrison plant to Jamestown
to Fargo and on south to a town designated as Morris which
is on map 206 about an inch south of the orange dot which we
are using to indicate the location of Elbow Lake.
Q. Is Morris an interconnection between the location of
an interconnection between Otter Tail and the Bureau?
[T. v., 66] A. Yes. Morris is a point of interconnection
shown on Map GX-443 and it’s also included as a point of
delivery in the. Otter Tail-Bureau contract. So Bureau power
can enter the Otter Tail system at Morris physically.
Q. Then what would happen from that point?
A. From that point it would flow northward over an exist-
ing Otter Tail 41.6 kv line that goes reasonably close to Elbow
Lake on its way to Fergus Falls where it’s connected back into
the basic grid system of the Otter Tail Power Company.
Q. Now, suppose the town attempted to purchase power
at wholesale from United Power Association, how would
United Power Association accomplish the delivery of power
to Elbow Lake? |
A. Well, there probably are a couple of ways that it could
be done. United could make arrangements with the Bureau
Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson 537
so that in exchange for United delivering power to the Bureau
at some point, and this is hypothetical, that the Bureau would
deliver power to United at Morris and then an arrangement
would have to be made under a wheeling contract to move
power north from the Bureau’s connection at Morris on up
to, over the Otter Tail 41.6 kv subtransmission line to the town
of Elbow Lake.
The other would be to build a transmission line from the
Elk River system to Elbow Lake and as best to my [T. V, 67]
knowledge on the capacity of the UPA system, that would be
a rather lengthy transmission line.
Q. Would you say that would have feasibility?
A. That would not have feasibility.
Q. Now, you are aware, are you not, of the fact that Otter
Tail and UPA are parties to an integrated transmission agree-
ment, are you not?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Now, how would power be delivered to Elbow Lake as
you understand that contractual arrangement pursuant to
that contract between or among others, Otter Tail and UPA?
Mr. Field: That's an exhibit, isn’t it, Mr. Anderson?
Mr. Anderson: It is.
The Witness: I don’t know how or whether—
Mr. Field: Exhibit 40 is the United Power Association
transmission service agreement between it and several com-
panies,
By Mr. Anderson:
Q. You have a copy of it there? .
A. Yes. When I indicated that I did not know whether this
transaction was possible under this agreement, I didn’t find
any provision whereby Otter Tail is required to wheel power
—
538 Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson
for these type of customers under the agreement. [T. V, 68]
This is a broad type transmission service agreement between
the companies and does not seem to facilitate the transaction
that you have described to me here.
Q. Now, suppose Elbow Lake decided to try to buy some
power at wholesale from Runestone Electric Cooperative,
Would you explain to the Court how delivery of power from
Runestone to Elbow Lake could be accomplished?
A. Well, based on GX-206, Runestone does not appear to
have subtransmission facilities in the area of Elbow Lake.
There is shown about three-quarters of an inch due east of the
circle that we have marked as Elbow Lake, a short blue line
extension with a blue circle labeled CPA. So I would presume
that that is the facility now owned by CPA that could be used
for service to Runestone; and that being so, power would still
have to move from that blue facility over the orange facility
westward to get to Elbow Lake, and it would seem to me that
Runestone or CPA would have to make arrangements with
Otter Tail Power Company to wheel the power from that sec-
tion of line owned by CPA to Elbow Lake.
Q. Now, is Runestone a member of CPA?
A. That’s my understanding.
Q. And would the arrangements for delivery of power to
Runestone and this area be embraced within the document we
have marked as GX-22 which is the integrated transmission
agreement between CPA and Otter Tail Power Company?
[T. V, 69] A. Well, based on my reading of this agree-
ment it would appear that Runestone and CPA would have
to secure the approval of Otter Tail in order to sell power on
a wholesale basis to Elbow Lake.
Q. In order to arrange delivery of the power?
A. Delivery of the power, correct.
Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson 539
Q. Well, suppose the town of Elbow Lake turned Basin
Electric Power Cooperative and sought to have Basin sell the
power wholesale. How could Basin accomplish delivery of
power to the town of Elbow Lake?
A. Well, I have first-hand knowledge having participated
in the negotiation of the contract that Basin Electric under
its contract with the Bureau has the right to use the surplus
capacity up to 200 megawatts in the existing Bureau system
for the payment of an annual wheeling charge which is cal-
culated on a postage stamp rate over the entire eastern divi-
sion of the Bureau of Reclamation. So Basin would have the
right to take power from its thermal plant at Stanton, North
Dakota, and request the Bureau to wheel part of that power
to the Morris substation of the Bureau at which point the
Bureau is connected to the Otter Tail system.
From the Morris substation up to Elbow Lake Power would
have to move either over the existing facility of Otter Tail,
existing subtransmission facility of Otter Tail or over a new
facility to be constructed by someone, a [T. V, 70] duplicating
facility.
Q. Well, suppose the town of Elbow Lake decided to build
a line to connect itself with the Bureau substation at Morris.
Would you give us your opinion as to the feasibility of the
town of Elbow Lake building a line for the sole purpose of
connecting the Elbow Lake system with the Forman substa-
tion—or the Morris substation of the Bureau of Reclamation?
A. Yes. With the same qualification I placed on the esti-
mate for Hankinson, because I have not been in the field to
view the construction problems, I would note that there are
already three lines going northward from Morris to the direc-
tion of Elbow Lake, and I would have some reservations about
costs of right of way of putting a fourth line through there
AY eA
540) Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson
now, but notwithstanding that I have used the same cost esti-
mates assuming that it’s 29 miles, or that you could find right
of way for a line that would reach between Morris and Elbow
Lake and would be approximately 29 miles in length at $10,007
per mile, would be $310,000
Now, I will put in the one step larger size substation at El.
bow Lake because of the small incremental cost difference
with a substation costing $85,000 with escalation. Not know.
ing who would furnish the termina] facility in the Bureau
substation at Morris, I have added another $61,000, the same
figure I used at Hankinson, and I would come up with a total
cost of this project of $446,000.
[IT. V. 71] Now, cost is not the sole matte of considera-
tion here, because here, again, these are estimates for a radial
line, a line that does not have two-way service except as such
service can be provided for a number of years by using the
existing Elbow generation to back it up. At such time
as the load at El e exceeded the reasonable capability
of their two generating units, this line would have to be ex-
tended to some other facility in order to provide loop service
in case of an outage.
Q. As I understand the problem of radial lines, if you are
connected by a radial line your source is over here, something
goes wrong with that source, and you are out of power?
A. You have a complete blackout, that is correct.
Q. Whereas, if you have loop service and connected on two
ends, then you have assurance that if one source on the one
side is out, the other source will pick up and provide the
power?
A. Yes. There is always, of course, the possibility of, with
a tornado going in the direction of a line, to take out the line
on both sides, but that’s rather remote and there is less likeli-
Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson 541
bood of that than there is for some situation to cause the
outage of the radial line which would put the town in the
black. 1 ;
Q. Well, pow, as you look at GX-206, you notice that Cr.
V, 72) some of these Bureau lines pass fairly close, and this
is shown more closely on 440, some of the Bureau lines pass
quite closely to towns served at retail by Otter Tail.
Now, suppose you have a situation where you have a 230
kv Bureau line passing adjacent to a town which has, say, 500
people in it, no substation there at all. Could you give us your
opinion as to the feasibility of a town in that situation tapping
to the Bureau 280 kv line so as to be able to obtain Bureau
power and so as to have power for its municipal system?
A. In my opinion, it would be entirely unfeasible, and I
can perhaps demonstrate that by giving a range of costs of
making such a connection. I have to give a range of costs
because the hypothetical question that you asked, it is not.
known what type of protection the Bureau of Reclamation
engineers would require on the major 230 kv bulk transmis-
sion line for a substantial tap as you have suggested.
A complete protection scheme in which there would be pro-
tective breakers or circuit breakers put on both sides of the
tap, using a reasonably small transformer, could cost to the
order of $800,000. For a city of 500, it would not be feasible.
If the Bureau permitted you to tap the line and only put in
protection for the substation transformer that you would pro-
pose to use to serve a city of 500, the cost would be to the order
of half a million dollars, [T. V, 73] and this, too, is prohibitive.
So in my opinion, you would not consider it with the availabil-
ity of other underlying subtransmission systems, and an
engineer would have to look very hard at finding ways and
means to use an existing 115 or 41.6 kv facility before you
* —
542 Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson
tapped one of these major transmission lines for such a small
duty.
Q. In other words, what you would have to do is create 3
little substation to serve the town?
A. That is correct. 5
Q. The town cannot use power which is delivered at 230
kv, as I understand it?
A. It is not possible.
Q. It has to be stepped down through a process 80 that
eventually it reaches what voltage?
A. Probably 12,000 volts, from 230,000 volts you would
have to step it down to 12,000 volts. I have never known in the
Missouri Basin area of such a substation having been built.
The Court: Is this a good time for us to recess for about
ten minutes?
Mr. Anderson: Yes, Your Honor.
(Recess taken.) — —
By Mr. Anderson:
Q. Before the recess, we were talking about a hypothetical
situation where a town of about 500 people [T. V, 74] located
adjacent to a 230 kv line, the feasibility of tapping that line
so as to obtain power from it.
Now, suppose we have a situation where we have a 230 kv
line, no substation, no existing substation in the area, and we
have a town of, say, about 500 people located 15 or 20 miles
from the 230 kv line.
Now, in your judgment, would that town be able to feasibly
tap the 230 kv line so as to obtain power from that line?
A. In my opinion, no, and I can support that by adding
to the estimates that I gave previously. Assume that your
hypothetical town of 500 is 20 miles. You would add to the
$800,000 estimate I gave previously or the $500,000 estimate,
Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson 543
—
you would add 20 miles times 310,700 a mile or add another
$214,000. Now, on top of this, you would have to step down
at the end of that 20-mile section from 41.6 kv to, assume,
again, 12,000 volts, if that is the using voltage of the town,
and again you have another 80,000 added to that. So you can
gee in the first instance I gave you you would be up to a mil-
lion dollars and in the second instance you would be up to
three-quarters of a million dollars, which is just out of the
question for a town of that size. There’s got to be a better way
to do it.
[T. v. 75) d. So in making sure I understand this, in
the situation we have been talking about, the first thing the
town would have to do is in effect construct a substation at
the point of interconnection with the 230 kv line, step the
power down?
A. Right.
Q. And the line it would build to transport the power from
that substation to the town would be, I think as you indicated,
41 kv?
A. That’s right.
Q. Then once the line reaches the town then there has to
be another substation to step it down in order to effect de-
livery in the town?
A. Yes. Now, the other alternative could be, but again this
leads to proliferation of lines, you could step it down at the
point of contact and extend a 12 kv line from that step-down
substation the 20 mile distance. Well, again, you would have
the problem of a 20-mile radial line, 12 kv with limited capac-
ity. In my opinion it’s just not good engineering.
Q. Soin addition to the problem of cost here, you have the
problem of reliability assuming it’s a radial line?
A. That’s right.
541 Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson
Q. Mr. Trommershausen, how do you define the term
wholesale sale as that term is commonly: used in the electric
LT. v, 76] power industry?
A. Well, a wholesale sale as I have come to use it, is a sale
that’s made by one utility to another. The purpose of the trans.
action is to provide power from one party to the other that
the other party can resell to its retail customers, whether they
be residential, commercial, industrial or whatnot.
Q. A sale for resale, is that another way of putting it?
A. Sale for resale, right.
Q. Now, are there different varieties of wholesale sales
in the electric power industry?
A. Yes, there are. And as we get farther and farther into
this complex power pooling situation, there are new terms and
new concepts coming up all the time, but let’s begin with some
of the more routine sales.
First there is what they call a requirement’s sale. This is
a sale, for instance, where a cooperative or a municipality
decides to purchase all of its power from a single wholesale
power supplier in which case the wholesale power supplier for
the term of the contract must agree to provide whatever
power, what total power requirements the purchaser needs.
A second type of sale of which many are made involves
partial requirements. A partial requirement’s [T. V, 77] sale
is one wherein one utility has some generation that’s still
usable, but he doesn’t want to continue to expand his genera-
tion using small, inefficient, high-cost units. In that event, he
would find it economically advantageous to buy a portion of
his future power requirements for load growth from another
wholesale supplier, and in that event, the parties would enter
into a partial requirement’s wholesale power contract.
_
Tromm.ershausen, Direct by Anderson 545
Then there are other refined situations coming into being
because since power grids are getting so expansive and cover
time zone changes and cover seasonal changes, it has been
possible to sell what they call seasonal power. Some people
have their load in the summertime and they can use a block
of power very efficiently in the summertime. Other utilities
have a winter peak and they can use a block of power for a
four- to six-month winter season, and so it’s common now in
many parts of the country to have seasonal sales.
There are other sales which in this area are called participa-
tion sales. This has come about because people are joining
hands and building large, efficient generating units and take,
for example, one owner who builds a unit larger than he can
absorb within his own load, he will sell out a block of that
power to another utility for a specified period of time. Gen-
erally speaking, those sales [T. V, 78] are based on the output
of the unit under contract and are not classified as firm power
since the purchaser has to carry his own reserves.
There are other sales being made under formal contracts
where you provide emergency service during the loss of a
generating unit due to an unscheduled outage.
And there are other sales being made written on a prear-
ranged basis, you schedule an outage to maintain a major
machine, and so you would buy firm power on a weekly,
monthly or seasonal basis from another utility for mainte-
nance power.
So I think these generally describe the type of sales shat are
now being made in the industry.
Q. Now, have you had occasion, Mr. Trommershausen, to
review the special municipal electric service agreements which
Otter Tail has entered into with the towns to whom it pro-
vides wheeling service?
546 Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson
A. Yes. I have reviewed-them generally.
Q. Now, I show you GX-8 which is the agreement between
the Village of Tyler and Otter Tail, and I ask you to look at
it and tell us whether in your judgment that contract is in part
a contract for the provision of a sale for resale arrangement?
A. Yes. This contract which is entitled a special municipal
electric service agreement provides for not only [T. V, 79] the
wheeling of a block of Bureau power at the maximum rate of
400 kilowatts, but it also provides that for needs of the city
above its generating plant of 900 kilowatts, that wholesale
power is available from Otter Tail Power Company under a
service schedule and rate included in the agreement.
Q. Well, looking specifically at the contract, would you
point to the sections of it which you have denominated as sales
for resale type provisions?
A. Well, basically the fact that Tyler is a retailer of elec-
tricity, I don’t know of anything else that it could do with the
electricity, it purchases either from the Bureau or the com-
pany than to resell it. Tyler is not a consumer, a consumer of
the commodity of electricity. It sells it and its retail consumers
consume or use this commodity. So basically this is a—the
entire arrangement is a wholesale contract for resale.
Q. Well, apart from the wheeling aspect of the contract,
the contract as I understand it, in part, is an arrangement
whereby Otter Tail delivers power sold for resale by the Bu-
reau to the town. Would you point to anything in addition to
that wheeling part of the contract which in your judgment
is indicative of the wholesale sale’s type arrangement?
A. Yes. Section 3.3.
Mr. Field: I was going to say, [T. V, 80] while I don't
agree with your characterization of it, was going to suggest
3.3. Is that what you were looking for?
Wen een Buren ben lden
The Witness: Yes. Section 3.3 on page five.
By Mr. Anderson:
Q. What's that entitled?
A. “Firm electric service.” And this service can only be
used by Tyler for resale.
Mr. Field: I object to the witness characterizing a service.
Let’s take the language of the contract if that’s what’s perti-
nent here rather than some characterization of it.
IT. v. 81] The Court: Do I have the same exhibit as you
all, 3.8 or 3?
Mr. Field: It’s Exhibit 3.
Mr. Anderson: We are now talking about Section 3.3
which is on page 5 of Exhibit GX-3. I withdraw that. I am just
asking his opinion as an expert, Your Honor, as to whether
his judgment as a man who spent the better part of his life
involving himself in both power supply and analyzing matters
of this sort, his opinion that this provision is a wholesale sale
type provision. 3
The Court: You may answer the question.
The Witness: The answer is yes.
By Mr. Anderson:
Q. Now, looking at another contract, this one, one between
Otter Tail and the Village of Shelly, this is dated August 25,
1970, GX-11.
A. have it.
Q. What is the term of that contract? ;
A. It’s ten years from December 21, 1970.
Q. Now, in your opinion does that contract contain within
it a provision for the sale of wholesale power by Otter Tail to
Shelly ?
Mr. Field: Now, if Your Honor please, we object to these
questions as to his opinion as to [T. V, 82] what the contract
548 Trommershousen, Direct by Andersen
provides. It’s a generalization that is going to be referred to,
presumably, later. This characterizing a contract, actually
special municipal contracts, as was true of Tyler and pre-
sumably Shelly is similar in this respect, provide for Otter
Tail furnishing service over and above what they need from
the Bureau or from their own generating station upon notice
and as may be subject to the ability of Otter Tail to furnish
as determined by Otter Tail and so forth, I mean the contract
provisions are quite specific. To characterize that as an ordi-
nary wholesale sale in my opinion is not the function of the
' witness, it’s the function of the lawyer and the Court.
The Court: You may answer the question.
The Witness: I consider the Shelly contract which does
provide that when Shelly has exceeded its Bureau allocation,
that again the company notice and by firm electric service;
and when they do that the contract further states that the
municipality agrees to take and pay for all of the electric
power required by the municipality and use them in the mu-
nicipality system in addition to power it receives from the
Bureau. Now, if the problem we are having is used in the
municipality system, the only use a municipal system can have
is to buy power for reselling. So with that explanation I con-
sider this a wholesale sale for resale.
IT. V, 83] Q. And now, using Exhibit GX-11 as a basis,
would you compute for the Court the cost to Shelly of Bureau
power? I am including the cost of the power and the cost of
delivering it to the municipal gate, tell us what the total cost
in mills is.
A. Well, not having the specific information on the load
characteristics of Shelly, but assuming it’s average for other
preference municipal customers served by the Bureau, Shelly
would pay the Bureau about 5 mills per kilowatt hour. It would
Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson 549
pay one and a half mills to Otter Tail for firming service,
which is a charge which has been paid by municipal systems
and cooperatives in the area. There is a special connection
facilities charge because Otter Tail was required by a step
down substation from 41.6 kv to the city’s voltage, which
would cost Shelly another 5 mills, and as I read the contract,
Shelly has to absorb the line losses in the Otter Tail system
which I estimate to be about .5 mills and you total those fig-
ures and the cost of Bureau power to Shelly comes out to 12
mills per kilowatt hour.
Q. Did you say the cost to Shelly of line losses was 5 mills
or point 5 mills?
A. Point 5 mills.
Q. Using that same contract, namely,.the one between
Otter Tail and Shelly, would you compute for us what it would
cost, what it will cost Shelly to purchase power at wholesale
[T. v, 84] from Otter Tail, delivered to the town?
A. Well, again using the rates schedule that is included
in the Shelly contract and on the assumption that Shelly has
a 50 percent load factor in this instance, the cost of power,
without reference to any fuel adder, since I don’t know what
that fuel adder is for the Otter Tail system at this time, it
would cost about 14.8 mills per kilowatt hour to buy power
from Otter Tail delivered to the city gate.
Q. One last question. I show you GX-441 which is the
annual report, form 1 annual report filed by Otter Tail with
the FPC for the year end December 31, 1970, I will ask you
if you will look at that and tell me whether there is any indica-
tion in that document as to the volume of wholesale sales by
Otter Tail Power Company in the calendar year 1970?
A. I find two references. The first appears on Page 409,
line 11, under a table that reports the operating revenues, the
„
550 Trommershausen, Direct by Anderson
kilowatt hours sold and the average number of customers per
month for the Otter Tail system for the calendar year 1970.
On line 11, it shows that the operating revenues for the
year “for sales for resale” is $1,550,200 and there were
215,308,600 kilowatt hours sold.
Now, it shows that both in operating revenues and kilowatt
hours sold, this was an increase over the previous year.
IT. v., 85] Then if you turn again to page 413, which is
account 447 of the Federal Power Commission entitled “Sales
— for resale,” these sales figures are found at the bottom of the
page with the supporting data preceding it.
Mr. Anderson: That is all I have, Your Honor.
The Court: Was that Exhibit Number 440 7
Mr. Anderson: 441, Your Honor.
I am sorry, I forgot to give you this. It is page 409 and page
413.
The Court: You may examine, Counsel.
Mr. Field: If Your Honor please, before I get into my
broader scope of cross examination, I would like to refer to
a few items, starting with the end of the direct examination,
and that is FPC one report for 1970, Exhibit 441.
CROSS-EXAMINATION
By Mr. Field:
Q. You referred to two pages, 409 and 413 as showing
sales for resale and called our attention to the fact that the
same totals were on pages 413 and 409, so they are the same
transactions, I gather?
A. That is the assumption I made.
[T. V, 86] Q. We have more detail on page 413 as to
what makes up those totals, as I see it? Do you recognize that?
Trommershausen, Cross by Field 551
A. Yes, I do.
. Are you familiar with the Upper Mississippi Valley
Power pool?
A. Generally familiar, yes.
Q. That agreement is also an exhibit in this case?
A. That is right.
Q. Whether you have got a chance to review =
A. I have reviewed it.
Mr. Field: What is the number of that, for the record, the
main contract? There are supplements.
Mr. Anderson: GX-23, I believe. That is the basic agree-
ment.
By Mr. Field:
Q. In your examination of the Upper Mississippi Valley
Power Pool agreement, do you recognize that the transactions
that are recorded in total with certain labels on page 413 of
this FPC one represent transactions under the pool agree-
ment?
A. That is my understanding, yes, sir.
Q. I see. They are not sales to Shelly or to any of these
other towns that have special municipal electric service agree-
ments, are they?
IT. v. 87] A. No, and as I indicated earlier, any power
that you purchase from anybody else has got to be resold.
There is no other purpose for buying power or generating
power.
Q. If we can just answer the questions we will get along
a little faster.
You recognize there are no sales to any municipalities re-
ported in 1970?
A. I agree to that, right.
552 Trommershausen, Cross by Field
Q. Asa matter of fact, as you may know, there has never
been a kilowatt hour sold under this schedule 3.3 in these
special municipal contracfs such as Shelly, as an example, or
don’t you know that?
A. I haven't checked that because I assumed up to now
these 17 customers of the type of Shelly are still using their
Bureau power and haven’t had to call on the company for the
purchase of power that is possible under that contract.
Q. So you wouldn’t have any quarrel with the assertion
that there hasn't been a kilowatt hour sold under that sched-
ule, called for or sold, either one?
A. I have no first-hand knowledge that there has been.
Q. Do you recognize this, too, that these transactions
under the Mississippi Valley Power Pool, which presumably
are like other pools in some respects, at least, have special
characteristics, among them being that they are reciprocal,
the rights and obligations go both ways?
[T. V, 88] A. Yes, sir, I understand that.
Q. So that one time, one of the members of the pool may
be interested in buying what you call, for example, participa-
tion power and at another time be interested in selling it,
depending upon the capacity of generation of one supplier or
another and perhaps other factors?
A. Yes, that goes with the transactions that are working
out, right.
Q. And the price at which these pool transactions are made
are set by the agreements entered into which make the forma-
tion of the pool? In general, that is true, isn’t it?
A. Yes, which agreement, I understand, and the rates
attached, service schedule attached are approved by the Fed-
eral Power Commission.
Q. I will accept that. They are filed with the Federal
Power Commission?
—
Trommershausen, Cross by Field 553
A. Yes, sir.
Q. What I am getting at is, the schedule for exchange of
these area services under the pool arrangements are fixed by
contract, and, as you say, they are filed with the Federal
Power Commission but they are a contractual arrangement
to start with fixed by the parties?
A. Yes, sir.
q. Yes. And membership in the pool is from different [T.
v, 89] segments of the electric industry? By “segments,” I
mean both investor-owned and cooperatives in the Upper Mis-
sissippi Valley Power Pool, at least?
A. Yes, only those two categories.
Q. And would you recognize this, that the prices at which
the interchange of these various services, the prices are fixed
at a value that will encourage the flow both ways between the
parties ?
A. I haven't participated in the negotiations of those rate
schedules, sir, but I would presume that in all workable power
pools, there’s got to be mutual benefits and it’s possible that
rates could be set to achieve mutual benefits.
Q. And to encourage the flow both ways of the different
services ? n —
A. Yes, over a period of time.
Q. Yes, over a period of time.
A. On a take-your-turn basis, yes, sir.
Q. And I suppose you would also recognize that the costs
of the different suppliers in the pool would be at different
levels, that is, the cooperatives would have a different level
of costs than the investor-owned utilities in the same pool?
A. Yes, but I presume those differences were taken care
of during the negotiations that established the rates that are
now set in the service schedule.
—
554 Trommershausen, Cross by Field
CT. v, 90] Q. First, you recognize that there is a dif.
ference?
A. Yes.
Q. And if the services are going to be exchanged on a flow
one way one time and a flow another way another time, they
would need to be fixed as something that was mutually agreed
upon that would be advantageous for the flow both ways,
which wouldn’t necessarily be associated with the costs of
either party?
A. Well, not the specific cost at the time. I presume when
you average this out, as you must over a five or ten-year peri-
od, that you would recover your costs. Otherwise, you wouldn't
enter into the transaction.
Q. Perhaps I don’t make myself clear. If the benefit of the
pool is to achieve a reciprocal exchange of these services, the
benefit would be the fact that when you sold you expected to
get it back in due course of time? Wouldn’t that be one of the
major benefits of the arrangement?
A. Get the commodity back or the dollars back?
Q. The commodity?
A. Yes, yes.
Q. And in order, for example, to make it advantageous a
cooperative to purchase power from an investor-owned utility,
both of them belonging to the pool, in exchange for the inves-
tor-owned selling to them when the reverse excess capacity
was in existence the price would have to be fixed at [T. V, 91]
level that would encourage the flow both ways, isn’t that true?
A. Yes.
Q. To make myself clear, if a cooperative’s costs were
lower than the investor-owned utility’s cost for the commodity,
which I guess you will concede at the time is the usual situa-
tion, won’t you?
—
Trommershausen, Cross by Field 555
A. I can’t concede your use of the term “usual,” Mr. Field,
because there’s a transition in the power program of coopera-
tives. As you know, the REA has announced they are no longer
able to meet the financial needs of cooperatives. The coopera-
tives have set up their own bank. In addition, many coopera-
tives are now negotiating with the institutions on Wall Street
to borrow money for expansion of generation, certainly, and
possibly transmission, to the point where eventually their
capital costs may equal yours.
Q. You are looking to the future. I am — about the
present and the past.
A. Yes, but you asked me, you used the word “Usual.”
Q. I see. Well, let's construe “usual” to apply to the pres-
ent or past. Will you agree then?
A. Will you read the question back?
The Court: I don’t think you have finished your question,
Mr. Field. l
Mr. Field: Probably not, Your [T. V, 92] Honor. I will
start over again.
By Mr. Field:
Q. Assuming that the cooperatives’ costs at the present
time and in the past are lower than the investor-owned utili-
ties, members of the same pool; unless the price at which
power is intended to flow both ways is set at a level that’s
attractive to the cooperative, in other words, not in excess of
their own costs, the purposes of the pool of reciprocal and
exchange and flow both ways would be impeded, would it not?
A. Yes, it would, Mr. Field, because one of the reasons why
a cooperative could afford to pay the higher costs of a private
utility for two or three or four years was that they could then
defer building their own plants and when they brought their
own plant on the line they would already have accumulated
556 Trommershausen, Cross by Field
some ready lead 60 it could be mere nearly loaded and operate
at a higher and more efficient level for the duration of the life
of that plant. Se these, of course, are the considerations that
I am sure have led to the cooperation that exists in the Upper
Mississippi Valley Power Pool.
Q. In any event, we would expect the revenue from these
sales, whichever way they go in any particular year, not to
be related.in any material way to the costs of the respective
parties in exchanging the sales, isn’t that true?
CT. v, 93] A. I don't think I could buy that broad gen-
eralization, Mr. Field.
a. Could you buy a generalization which I will try to re-
state in a little more acceptable fashion, if I can, to you, that
the price at which the exchange of power is provided for
under the pool is a price that is intended to encourage the flow
of power both ways at the same level of price?
A. Yes.
Q. That being true, the level of that same price to the
coops and the investor-owned utilities must necessarily be
some figure other than the costs of either party, isn’t that
true?
A. Well, as you say, this is a negotiated price. How it re-
lates to cost of service of each of the parties is something I
would have no knowledge of.
Q. I see. To get back to the basic question, I guess, this
FPC one under “Sales for resale” includes a requirement to
report pool transactions under that classification, and that
is why they are here, is that right, sir? , N
A. Apparently, but there was no qualification
CT. v, 94] Q. There is no sale for resale in Otter Tail
Power Company’s FPC-1-1970 of any wholesale sale to a
municipality for resale, is there?
—
Trommershausen, Cross by Field 557
A. On these pages, no.
Any place in it?
Mr. Anderson: Are you talking about a requirement’s
sale or talking about a firming power sale, Mr. Field?
Mr. Field: Any sale to a municipality for resale.
The Witness: I was guided by the heading that you filled
in on line 447, sales for resale.
By Mr. Field:
Q. Where are we now?
A. On page 409.
Q. Well, that’s just a summary of 413, isn't it?
A. Yes. But perhaps that could have been made more
clearer that it’s Upper Mississippi Valley Power pool sales and
not sales to municipals. Had that been footnoted, if you
thought it necessary to do so.
Q. Well, now, we know it’s Upper Mississippi Valley
Power pool sales, don’t we?
A. Right. Right.
Q. So my question is there are no sales for resale to mu-
nicipalities in the Otter Tail Power report for 1970, [T. V, 95]
that’s true, isn’t it?
A. In your detail there are no sales listed.
Q. Well, there are no sales to municipalities for resale et
reported in this report, can’t you adjust yourself to that ques- 3 ö
tion, that's true, isn't it?
A. Yes.
Q. Counsel asked you some questions about Elbow Lake
and coming to that area of your direct testimony, and as your
consideration and I believe you pointed out in your direct
testimony, Elbow Lake previously was served at retail by
Otter Tail Power Company?
A. That’s my understanding. Yes, sir.
558 Trommershausen, Cross by Field
Q. And I believe you mentioned in your direct testimony
that Elbow Lake put in its own municipal electric system?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And the source of power in the system that was set up
was local generation by Diesel engines?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And I suppose you are familiar with the fact that E.
bow Lake has a proceeding pending before the Federal Power
Commission to require Otter Tail Power Company to furnish
an interconnection with the Elbow Lake system?
A. Ihave knowledge that such proceedings are lle way.
Q. One of your partners, Mr. Mayben of R. W. Beck [T.
V, 96] and Associates, appeared as a witness in that proceed-
ing, did he not?
A. He did.
Q. And I suppose in connection with your study of this
matter you are familiar with the fact that Mr. Mayben testi-
fied in the FPC proceeding, among other things, in presenting
a plan for an independent transmission line to bring Bureau
power to Elbow Lake?
A. I am familiar that he did, right.
Q. Yes. Are you familiar with the fact that he used a cost
per mile of $9,000 a mile instead of your $10,000, and aren't
you familiar with that?
A. No. Mr. Field, I didn’t have the breakdown of his esti-
mate and I didn’t check. In the estimates I gave I told you the
source of them, and I must consider that his estimate was
made earlier than today, probably as much as 18 months to
two years ago, and so with the inflation we are now getting
in transmission, even if Mr. Mayben was called to the stand,
he probably would want to escalate his costs also.
Trommershausen, Cross by Field 559
Q. Perhaps Mr. Mayben’s estimate was made as of the
time that Elbow Lake was considering other sources of power.
What I am getting at is we are sitting here in 1971 whereas
the transactions that we are reviewing occurred some years
ago?
A. Well, are you asking me to check, make my own [T. V,
97) independent check of Mr. Mayben’s estimate?
Q. No. I am just suggesting that the figures of two years
ago may have some pertinency because that’s the time the
issue came up and the request for additional sources of power?
A. Are you trying to get me to explain the difference be-
tween Mr. Mayben’s estimate and mine, is that what—
Q. You are suggesting it’s a matter of timing, aren’t you?
A. Matter of timing that if his estimate were brought up
to date, if it’s lower now than my esimate, if he applied escala-
tion from the time he made his estimate he might be pretty
close to the one I gave you.
Q. If you de-escalated yours to the time when the matter
came up for consideration yours might be lower?
A. That’s possible except that the escalation has occurred
in the last three years which—I mean, let me rephrase it.
Within the last three years escalation has not followed the
normal pattern. It’s been much higher.
Q. I suppose I had better ask it this way. If we were con-
sidering what the cost would be as of 1968 we should use 1968
figures ?
A. Yes.
Q. Now, Mr. Mayben suggested this independent trans-
mission line is one of the alternate ways of furnishing [T. V,
98] additional sources of supply to Elbow Lake, did he not?
A. Tes. That's my understanding but it was not his rec-
ommended plan.
——
560 Trommershausen, Cross by Field
Q. I suppose we have to get into the testimony for that,
but he presented it as one of the alternative methods.
A. Yes. Mr. Field, any engineer doing work for a client
in the power supply field is obligated to develop as many rea-
sonable alternatives as there are to a problem and Mr. Mayben
followed that practice, I think developed three or four alterna-
tive plans and predicted the economic results.
Q. This is one of the reasonable alternatives then that you
are speaking of?
A. Reasonable except with the qualification that he did
put on the independent plan that it was a radial line that would
eventually have to be extended or more generation put into
Elbow Lake in order to achieve the degree of reliability he
would like to see for that situation.
Q. Well, in the case of Elbow Lake, as you pointed out, on
your direct examination, they have generation?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. So that as far as reliability is concerned until the load
in Elbow Lake exceeds both engines the radial line would be
a reliable alternative, would it not?
A. Yes. Except, Mr. Field, for the allowance that one of
the Diesel generators has to be opened up and taken [T. V, 99]
out of service for inspection and if down the road the load
exceeded the capacity of the one generator when the other
generator was down for its maintenance checkup and you had
an outage on the line, Elbow Lake would be blacked out for
the period of time you could restore service.
Q. You are talking about a two-outage contingency, are
you?
A. Yes. I am talking about a one-Diesel unit undergoing
maintenance and then a failure of the transmission line, which
I recognize is a two-contingency situation.
Trommershausen, Cross by Field $61
Q. Generally for reliability, the one contingency situation
is considered a fair basis for planning, isn’t it?
A. That’s correct. That’s correct.
Q. Now, among your costs for Elbow Lake, you included
an item of a substation, did you?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And I guess that was also true in the case of Hankin-
son?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. There would need to be a substation in any event, would
there not, whether the source of power is 29 or 40 miles away
or on the 41,600 volt line that is closer to town, you need a
substation in any event, wouldn’t you?
A. If either town is going to be served from a 41,600 volt
subtransmission line, yes, a step-down substation [T. V, 100]
is needed.
Q. That’s the substation you are talking about, isn’t it,
41,600 volts?
A. That’s correct.
Q. Substation?
A. Right.
Q. So that’s an expense that would be involved if the town
was served on the Otter Tail line that’s adjacent to Elbow
Lake, wouldn’t it?
A. Yes. I see what you are driving for, Mr. Field, but there
is the other possibility that if they were connected to the
Otter Tail system, and under the Shelly agreement, for an
annual charge Otter Tail would put in the substation, which
it did for Shelly, that either Hankinson or Elbow Lake would
not have to raise the new capital required to finance and in-
stall the substation. There would be that difference.
562 Trommershausen, Cross by Field
Q. Perhaps we could agree on that, somebody would have
to furnish the money for it?
A. Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
Q. And the expense would be there?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Are you suggesting that Otter Tail should spend the
money instead of the municipality and then make a charge for
it, is that what you are suggesting?
[T. v, 101] A. I am not suggesting that, Mr. Field. I
mentioned there is a precedent for that in the Shelly contract
in which, as I read the contract, Otter Tail is providing the
step-down substation and charging Shelly five mills a kilowatt
hour for all the Bureau power that goes through the Otter
Tail substation into ‘the city of Shelly’s system.
Q. Well, in any event, I guess we can agree that the sub-
station capital expense is an expense that would have to be
advanced by someone?
Yes. I will agree with that.
Regardless of what the source of power would be?
I think that’s correct.
Yes.
That’s correct.
Were you asked to investigate the source of power for
Elbow Lake from East River Electric Cooperative?
A. No, sir.
Q. So you haven't given any consideration to that possi-
bility?
A. No, sir.
Q. Are you familiar with the fact that under an order of
the Federal Power Commission, Elbow Lake has the right to
a short term interconnection with Otter Tail Power Company’s
system for their alleged shortage and/or emergency service?
S r Oro
Trommershausen, Cross by Field 563
A. Ihave read the record and know that there is such [T.
v, 102] an order.
Q. Yes. And are you familiar with the fact that Elbow
Lake has actually built such a line, at least the poles and wires
are up?
A. No. The last I heard from Mr. Mayben was that since
that decision is under litigation that Elbow Lake had some
problem with the proceeding, and I don’t have any further
details than that, Mr. Field.
Q. I guess you aren’t quite up to date—
No, sir.
. —then, are you?
No, sir.
. Mr. Martinson from Elbow Lake was a witness here
the other day and told us that the line was built and the sub-
station was ordered but you don’t know those facts?
A: I don’t know those facts. Right.
Q. I see. I presume you are familiar with the fact that the
request of Elbow Lake before the Federal Power Commission
for a long term interconnection which would involve presum-
ably a consideration of a wholesale sale is still pending before
the Federal Power Commission?
A. That’s what I understand.
Q. I see. Now, what you have done in substance in an-
swer to counsel’s questions as to Elbow Lake and Hankinson
too, was to trace what you say would be the path by which
[T. v, 108] Bureau power or some other source of power
would reach Elbow Lake or Hankinson under the existing
facilities that exist at this time?
A. That’s correct.
—
564 Trommersheusen, Cross by Field
Q. I see. Have you given consideration to whether the
existing facilities of the intervening suppliers are near capac.
ity as far as their transmission facilities are concerned?
A. No. The Department of Justice has not provided me
with power flow studies conventionally made by utilities, |
do remember reading the testimony of Mr. Nye in which he
made in the FPC proceeding in which he carefully analyzed
this problem, and one of the solutions which he has, which |
would agree with, is that if the 41.6 kv line now serving Elbow
Lake area and if Elbow Lake was to be finally connected to
that substation transmission line, that the best solution to
reinforce your system would be to put in the step-down sub-
station from Otter Tail’s 115 kv line, which goes very near
your 41.6 kv line, it’s a natural place to put that step-down
transformation. Whether there is apt to be a shortage if
capacity in your 41.6 kv facilities, it is a normal thing in the
electric industry to add that capacity by simply feeding into
your subtransmission line, as you have done in dozens of
other cases, I am sure, on your system, from the next highest
voltage level, which [T. V, 104] happens to be that 115 kv line
on GX-206 that runs from Morris to Fergus Falls.
Q. Now, you have, I guess, volunteered some information
that wasn’t included in my question. But I would like to ask
you about the subject matter you have just talked about.
If you have read Mr. Nye’s testimony in the FPC proceed-
ings, isn’t this true, that he said that the capacity of the exist-
ing line was nearing the point where it would be all utilized
for Otter Tail customers?
A. Yes, I do recall that.
Q. Yes. And as you have indicated, the plan to relieve that
situation with or without Elbow Lake is a connection with the
115,000 higher voltage grid of Otter Tail and the construction
of a substation at a considerable cost?
Trommershausen, Cross by Field 565
A. Yes, sir.
q. Do you remember what the cost was as estimated by
Mr. Nye?
A. This would be off the top of my head, but I think it was
to the order of $800,000. If you want the exact figure for the
record, I would have to go bach to the testimony.
q. Arg you familiar with the fact that Mr. Nye stated that
the necessity for the investment, whatever it was, would be
accelerated by something in the neighborhood of two years,
I believe it was, if Elbow Lake’s load was to be added to that?
IT. v. 105) A. That's correct.
Q. So there are problems on the part of the owners and
the operators of any transmission line as the years go on, their
capacity, their planning and the areas which are to be served
by them, and, in fact, that is a field you are particularly inter-
ested in, isn’t it?
A. That is correct, and in this situation, a full economic
study might show that if Otter Tail deemed that they were
caused to put in the new substation ahead of time, it still might
be better for Elbow Lake to pay, to reimburse Otter Tail for
its out-of-pocket costs rather than to go to another plan which
didn’t fit into as sensible a plan as the one Mr. Nye worked
out and have to bear those extra costs for the life of the facil-
ity.
Q. As a matter of fact, the plan that Mr. Nye worked out,
that he recommended for Elbow Lake, was an independent
transmission line along the lines that Mr. Mayben had with
some extra considerations for additions during the next 20
years?
A. Yes, but I don’t recall that Mr. Nye solved the problem
of reliability. It was still a radial line.
Q. But supported by the Elbow Lake generating plant?
566 Trommershausen, Cross by Field
A. Until they were fully loaded.
Q. And then some provisions to take care of that? Don't
you recall that?
IT. V, 106] A. Yes, I do recall he was going to add an-
other 500 peaking Diesel to carry it for the next increment
of time as.an independent facility.
Q. The point I am trying to make is, he did present a solu-
tion for Elbow Lake without using Otter Tail’s lines? That
was the substance of his recommendation, isn’t that true?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And Mr. Nye considered that a feasible plan, did he
not?
A. I recall that he did, yes.
Q. So, at least, there are other plans for furnishing addi-
tional power supply for Elbow Lake to the extent that it needs
it or considers it needs it from sources in using other facilities
other than Otter Tail’s facilities? That is true, isn’t it?
A. Yes, and there is the problém of proliferation of lines,
why not make full use of the 115 and the 41.6 kv line that is
there before you build a third line in the area.
Q. There may be differences of opinion as to the merits
of this plan or that plan and there may need to be studies to
evaluate from one standpoint or another, but the point is,
there are other plans that at least some consider feasible for
Elbow Lake to obtain an additional source of power? Wouldn't
you concede that?
[T. V. 107] A. Yes, sir.
Q. Now, still speaking of the Elbow Lake situation and
your direct testimony, you referred to the United Power Asso-
ciation, and you were asked questions about that potential
source or possible source, and you referred to an integrated
transmission agreement, Exhibit 40?
— —
Trommershausen, Cross by Field 567
A. Yes, sir. * >
Q. Do you have that in front of you now for reference?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. That is a transmission service agreement between
Northern Minnesota Power Association, Rural Cooperative
Power Association, United Power Association, Northern
States Power Company and Otter Tai] Power Company?
A. That is what the report says.
Q. That is the contract?
A. That is what the contract says. .
Q. Where is there any provision in this agreement that
inhibits anyone from serving Elbow Lake? a
A. Mr. Field, as I recall my testimony, I didn’t find any
provision that inhibited that.
Q. I am sorry, I misunderstood you.
A. I had problems with it from the standpoint of feasibil-
ity, except I did comment that if they used that, I recall now,
if they used that short section of line that is labeled CPA to
get from their system over to the Elbow Lake [T. V, 108]
system, that that line is tied to the Otter Tail 41.6 kv, based
on this map, and so I presumed that by going that route, CPA
would have to get permission from Otter Tail to let its facili-
ties be used by UPA to get UPA power over the CPA system
and over the Otter Tail system to Elbow Lake.
. We start out with the proposition there is nothing about
that in the agreement itself?
A. That is correct.
Q. You mentioned Basin Electric Power Cooperative in
answer to Mr. Anderson’s questions as another potential
source of power for Elbow Lake, and I believe you referred
to the contract between Basin Electric Power Cooperative and
the Bureau of Reclamation in connection with that?
e
Trommershausen, Cross by Field
Yes, sir.
You are familiar with that, are you?
Yes, sir.
And that is an exhibit in this case, too?
Yes. ;
Now, that contract between Basin Electric Power
Cooperative and the Bureau involves extensive purchases of
power from Basin to the Bureau, does it not?
A. You mean is Basin selling considerable amounts of
surplus energy to the Bureau?
Q. Yes.
A. Yes, they are selling decreasing amounts as the [T. V,
109] unit number one is needed to meet its own loads, but it
has sold not only a substantial amount of surplus energy each
year in the off-peak hours at night, but it has also sold some
short term firm which the Bureau commingled with hydro
power and resold to others.
Q. Do you have any idea of the extent of those sales in the
last year or two? How close are you to that operation?
A. Not too close, Mr. Field. Four or five years ago when
they were getting started I used to attend their meetings every
couple of months. They have staffed up with a completely
competent staff to the point where they only call me four or
five times a year now, so I don’t have a day-to-day contact
with their situation. I am, however, supervising some engi-
neers in the Denver office who are making studies for Basin’s
third unit, and from that standpoint, I will be getting closer
and closer into the daily situation as I attempt to understand
the needs and justification for the third unit.
Q. I see. I guess that’s the first we have heard of the third
unit. Unit No. 1 is what is operating now?
A. Yes.
pPPere>r
—
Trommershausen, Cross by Field 569
Q. Whieh you have referred to as furnishing energy to the
Bureau of Reclamation? .
A. Ves, sir.
IT. V, 110] Q. Unit No. 2 is, I guess, about ready to
start construction, is it?
A. Yes. We originally planned that that line would be,
that that plant would be ready for 1974. The Bureau asked
that it be deferred for a year so as not to cause a power sur-
plus in the area, and Basin did that. So the latest date is 1975,
and I know that, Mr. Field, because our organization is design-
ing one of the transmission lines that will connect the second
unit into the Bureau system.
Now, when I speak of the third unit, I don’t want to mislead
you, because there is no assurance that the third unit will be
a third unit in the existing plant—
The Court: Mr. Witness, I notice that when you answer
questions you answer the question and then you go off into
kind of a little junket of your own which doesn’t seem to be
pertinent to the question. I can see why you do go off into a
little dissertation if it is going to be explaining the answer,
but this last example is one where I think we get off the track.
The Witness: I am sorry. J
The Court: I think you have an inclination to do that from
time to time. It’s all very interesting, but perhaps not perti-
nent. I think if you will just answer Mr. Field’s. question and
let him ask more questions of you.
[T. V. 111] The Witness: Yes, sir.
By. Mr. Field:
Q. The capacity of unit No. 1, is that around 200 mega-
watts? 5
A. Yes, net.
570 Trommershausen, Cross by Field
a. The capacity of the second unit about to start construc.
tion is 400 megawatts? N
A. That is installed capacity. I think they are counting on
350 megawatts, net sales to its members.
Q. Is there also capability above that?
A. Yes, there is a short overload capability above that.
a. What I want to get at is the capacity of the second unit.
A. I think the nameplate of the machine is going to be 450.
Q. Now, the second unit when it comes on the line, the plan
is to sell large blocks of that power to the Bureau of Reclama-
tion, too, is it not?
A. Mr. Field, I think we have to make the distinction
between power and energy.
Q. That is all right.
A. To understand the operation of the second unit, Basin
is buying 280 megawatts of winter hydro peaking capacity
from the Bureau because it has a winter peak, and [T. V. 112]
Basin is going to use the surplus energy from its second unit
to make the peaking capacity it buys from the Bureau usable
to its members, and so the power that Basin will have for sale
basically will be whatever surplus energy is not needed to go |
with its own hydro peaking.
Q. My question was, that will be a substantial amount of
energy?
A. For a few years it will be a substantial amount of
energy. By 1978 the projections are it will all be absorbed in
Basin’s own load.
Q. Well, these arrangements between the Bureau and—
Mr. Anderson: Your Honor, I am going to object at this
point. I hate to intrude but we have already spent a consider-
able amount of time on the record asking the man from the
Bureau, namely, Mr. Muller, all about this arrangement be-
—
Trommershausen, Cross by Field 571
tween the Bureau and Basin, and we have also last week had
the opportunity to hear Mr. Grahl from Basin explain Basin’s
standpoint as to what this is all about. I submit we have al-
ready a complete record from representatives of the two
organizations who are the contracting parties on this point.
1 don’t know that it serves any useful purpose to pursue it
further. It seems almost redundant.
The Court: Maybe it is prompted by your witness’ volun-
tary answers about the thing. Then CT. v. 1131 Mr. Field
ferrets out a little bit after he gets started.
Go ahead, Mr. Field.
By Mr. Field:
Q. These arrangements between the Bureau and Basin
are illustrative, aren’t they, of what is called an implementa-
tion of base load thermal plants and hydro for peaking and
the advantages that go towards using those two?
A. Yes. That is a very good example.
Q. Now, you spoke of a third unit that is being considered.
What is the size of that unit?
A. That hasn’t been determined, Mr. Field. The third unit
studies which are for capacity beyond 1978, we are consider-
ing four, 500, maybe 600 megawatts at the most.
Q. Is that a thermal plant?
A. Right.
Q. That’s continued planning on the part of Basin and I
presume it’s illustrative of other suppliers for a continuing
supply of power and energy in this area?
A. Yes, it’s necessary if you have a supplier responsibility
to look ahead at least ten years.
CT. v. 114] Q. Now, as far as getting through the path
that you described from Basin Cooperative to Elbow Lake,
that’s substantially the same problem you and I just discussed
~
—
572 Trommershausen, Cross by Field
as far as the path for the Bureau power getting to Elbow Lake,
is it not?
A. That's right. That's correct.
Q. Turning our attention to Hankinson for a moment, are
you familiar with this study that was made in 1964 by Central
Power Electric Cooperative for RSR, Exhibit 334 in this case?
A. Yes. I was provided a copy of that yesterday.
Q. I see.
A. Thave it.
Q. Exhibit 334 is a letter from Central Power Electric
Cooperative to the manager of RSR Electrie Cooperative dated
January 24, 1964, is that the one you have?
A. That’s right.
Q. Plan 1 that’s attached to that letter involves a trans-
mission line, the construction of a transmission line from For-
man to Hankinson, does it not?
A. Yes.
Q. And the investment required for the line is there esti-
mated at $5,000 per mile, 38 miles, or a total of $190,000. Do
you see that on the sheet there?
A. Yes, sir.
[T. v, 115} Q. Perhaps those were the costs as of the
time they were considering it in 1964?
A. That’s all we can assume.
Q. Do you disagree with it?
A. I think they ate on the low side.
Q. And I notice that the connection facilities, I think you
called them that, at the Bureau on sub at Forman—terminal
connection according to my notes you called it—the Bureau
gtid you estimated at $61,000 and on this central study the
figure, if I read this right, is $25,000. Do you find that? It’s
in the same paragraph.
—
Trowmershausen, Cross by Field 573
A. Yes. I am reading it, Mr. Fiald.
Q. I'm sorry.
A. Yes. I see that estimate.
q. That's the figure that would be comparable to your
figure of $81,000 as far as facilities are concerned, ia it not?
A. No. This would be more comparable to my figure of
$61,000 because this is the—
Q. $61,000, yes.
A. Because this is the terminal at Forman in the Bureau
substation.
Q. I must have misspoken myself. It’s comparable to your
figure of $61,000?
A. Yes.
[T. v. 116] Q. Yes. That develops in the central study
for this independent line, if I can call it that, in Forman and
Hankinson, for a total of $205,000 which is comparable to
your figure of $565,000?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Have you any information as to the loading or capacity
of Otter Tail’s 41,600 volt line in the Hankinson area at this
time?
A. No. Except that it’s adequate because it’s carrying the
Runestone and Hankinson loads at the present time. How long
in the future it can carry it I don’t know the answer to that
because I indicated we haven’t had the resulta of any power
flow studies that have been made on the Otter Tail system.
Q. That is, Otter Tail is serving Hankinson at retail?
A. Yes.
Q. At the present time?
A. Yes.
Q. But if there should be a change in suppliers, you don’t
have any information as to how much capacity there would
—
574 Trommershausen, Cross by Field
be taking into consideration the load growth of Otter Tail for
its remaining customers in that line for the foreseeable future,
you don’t have that information?
A. Assuming that Hankinson completely separates from
the Otter Tail system, is that the assumption you asked me
[T. v, 117]. to make?
Q. That’s the assumption Mr. Anderson was asking you
to make setting up a municipal system I believe.
A. Well, if you—I am confused here. If you take the Han-
kinson load off your system you will have capacity for an
added number of years in your own system before you have
to make any reinforcements.
Q. Well, what I am asking you is if you have any data as
to what that capacity would be or for how long?
A. No. No, I haven’t. No.
The Court: This may be an appropriate time, is it, Mr.
Field?
Mr. Field: Yes, Your Honor.
The Court: We'll recess now and we'll see you at 10:00
in the morning, gentlemen.
(Whereupon a recess was taken until 10:00 o’clock A. M.,
June 8, 1971.)
(TF. VE,-23
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
DISTRICT OF MINNESOTA
SIXTH DIVISION
(Title Omitted in Printing)
The above-entitled matter came on for trial before the Hon-
orable Edward J. Devitt, Chief Judge of the above-entitled
Court, at Saint Paul, Minnesota, commencing at 10:00 o'clock
A.M. June 1, 1971.
Trommershausen, Cross by Field 575
The following transcript contains the proceedings of June
8, 1971.
(Appearances as heretofore noted.)
[T. VI, 2] The Court: Good morning, gentlemen.
Mr. Field: May it please Your Honor, Counsel, Mr. Trom-
mershausen. May I continue with my cross examination,
Your Honor?
The Court: Yes.
Whereupon,
WILLIAM E. TROMMERSHAUSEN,
a witness having previously been sworn resumed the stand
and testified further as follows:
CROSS EXAMINATION
(Continued)
By Mr. Field:
Q. Before we continue there is one thing that troubles me
a little bit in yesterday’s cross examination. You have a copy
of the record there, do you?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. I want to refer to pages 98 and 99 of Volume 5 of our
transcript, being the transcript of June 7, 1971. I will refer
to just a part of it and then I want to ask you a question about
it. On line 21 of page 98 I asked the question:
“So that as far as reliability is concerned, until the load in
Elbow Lake exceeds both engines, the radial line would be a
reliable alternative, would it not?
“Answer yes. Except, Mr. Field, for the allowance that one
of the diesel generators has to be opened up and [T. VI, 3]
taken out of service for inspection, and if down the road the
load exceeded the capacity of the one generator when the other
generator was down for its maintenance checkup, and you had
an outage on the line, Elbow Lake would be blacked out for
the period of time you could restore service.
—
576 Trommershausen, Cross by Field
“Question You are talking about a two outage contingency,
are you?
“Answer yes. I am talking about a one diesel unit under.
going maintenance and then a failure of the transmission line
which I recognize is a two contingency situation.
“Question Generally for reliability the one contingency
situation is considered a fair basis for planning, isn’t it?
“Answer That’s correct. That’s correct.”
What troubles me, Mr. Trommershausen, is why you would
suggest a two outage contingency as a detriment to the radial
line to Elbow Lake when you recognize that from the stand-
point of reliability a one contingency is the proper basis for
planning?
A. Yes. Perhaps I can assist you in understanding of what
I was trying to portray?
Q. You can assist me by answering the question. Do you
recognize that a one contingency situation is a fair basis for
planning? :
A. Yes. Yes, I do.
[T. VI, 4] Q. And the situation that you suggested in
the context as I got it as an item against the radial line with
the Elbow Lake engines being in existence was based on a two
outage contingency, you acknowledge that too?
A. Yes, I do.
Q. Perhaps you acknowledge that it was a mistake to have
mentioned that then as an item?
A. No, not a mistake. The problem where we aren't com-
municating is that I was looking at the period when the load
at Elbow Lake had exceeded the capacity of one generating
unit and would have to depend on a second unit to take care
of an outage on the transmission line, and if the second unit
was not operable, there would have to be not a blackout, but
Tremmershausen, Cross hy Field 577
there would have to be curtailment. You have to bring the
load in Elbow Lake back to what could be carried by the one
remaining operable unit.
Q. But the two contingencies that you are talking about
are, one, à failure of the radial line?
A. Right.
Q. And, two, a failure of the second engine?
A. Yea, sir.
Q. And in proper planning, it isn’t considered necessary
to take those two contingencies into consideration for reliabil-
ity, is that true, sir?
A. That’s true.
Cr. VI, 5] Q. All right. Now, the same thing could be
said of the looped line that has the service from two ways that
you mentioned yesterday ?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. There reliability you suggested, perhaps others too, is
sustained because there is a feed from one way and also a feed
from a second way, so with the one contingency outage, one
line could go out and the other line would still supply service?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. So that’s reliability?
A. That’s reliability.
Q. Hf you were going to consider a two contingency outage
there, you would be talking about a simultaneous outage of
both lines, that isn’t proper planning, is it?
A. That isn’t proper planning. As I mentioned yesterday,
you could lose both lines if you had a tornado go parallel with
the line which is too remote to be considered in engineering
planning.
IT. VI,6] Q. As a matter of fact, the radial lines, while
subject to some criticism from the standpoint of reliability,
—
378 Trommershausen, Cross by Field
have been used and are still being used in this area we are
talking about for service, is that not true?
A. Yes, it is true, and this is the way transmission systems
are designed progressively ; the radial lines are built, but with
the pressure ever coming on us to increase, for reliability
closed loop circuits are built at a much earlier date now than
they were five or ten years ago.
Q. The point I am trying to make is, they are used to bring
service to the public in this area?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Would you refer to Exhibit 438, which is the systems
map of East River Electric Cooperative?
A. Yes, sir, I have it.
Q. By the way, is your firm or are you a consultant or
adviser for the East River Electric Cooperative?
A. We are not.
Q. You are not?
A. We are not.
Q. Have you been?-
A. Not with respect to transmission and system engineer-
8
Q
A.
With respect to what, then?
We have been with respect to generation and the [T.
Vi, 71 earlier plans that East River had for generation.
Q. I see. Have you studied this map in connection with
preparation for your testimony? It was mentioned in your
direct examination.
A. Yes, 1am familiar with it.
Q. And there are several examples of radial lines on the
East River Electric Cooperative system as shown on this
Exhibit 488, are there not?
A. At the present time, yes, but there are plans for looping
the
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