SLA Order

The Commission accepted and suspended Northern's SLA filing to be effective
December 1, subject to refund and other conditions, including Northern's
providing additional documentation. Specifically, the Commission denied the
requests for rejection of Northern's filing and request for consolidation
with Northern's Order No. 637 proceeding. However, the Commission concluded
that Northern's filing lacked adequate documentation and is requesting
Northern to provide the following documentation within 21 days of the Order:

1. A narrative explanation and work papers containing detailed calculations
supporting the derivation of all numerical values included in the attachments
to its filing, including rates, allocations, load factor calculations and
billing determinants.

2. A narrative explanation and all calculations which Northern needs to
recalculate the rate impact of the return and tax components associated with
the SLA .

3. Documentation including commodity prices and accounting entries for both
the SLA and the cash imbalance mechanism showing how the SLA balance changed
each month during the 2nd adjustment period (period ending March 31, 2000) as
a result of activity related to the cash imbalance mechanism and how each
monthly value of the cash imbalance mechanism was determined.

The parties have 21 days to comment on Northern's additional data. The
Commission anticipates that with such additional documentation, the issues
raised in this proceeding could be resolved on the merits without the need
for additional administrative procedures. The Commission further stated that
Northern need not provide information related to the SLA balance for the
period after March 31, 2000.

I will forward a copy of the Order as soon as I receive it. thanks, Maria