Enron Mail

From:rob.gay@enron.com
To:tracee.bersani@enron.com
Subject:Meeting With Furnas - Jan 29 01 - Tariff until Gas Commisioning
Cc:
Bcc:
Date:Wed, 31 Jan 2001 08:37:00 -0800 (PST)

---------------------- Forwarded by Rob G Gay/NA/Enron on 01/31/2001 02:25 PM
---------------------------


Jose Bestard@ENRON_DEVELOPMENT
01/30/2001 12:59 PM
To: Cuiaba LT
cc: "Luiz Sergio Assad" <assad@elektro.com.br<, "Fred Sampaio"
<freds@elektro.com.br<, Jose Lucio Reis/SA/Enron@Enron, Luiz
Maurer/SA/Enron@Enron

Subject: Meeting With Furnas - Jan 29 01 - Tariff until Gas Commisioning

FYI
---------------------- Forwarded by Jose Bestard/ENRON_DEVELOPMENT on
01/30/2001 12:55 PM ---------------------------

Created 01/30 10:55 AM Modified 01/30 12:55 PM
Title: Meeting With Furnas - Jan 29 01 - Tariff until Gas Commisioning

Furnas: Celso Ferreira, Roberto de la Nina
EPE: Jose Bestard, Laine Powell, Christiaan Huzier
Consent.- Before entering into the purpose of the meeting, I told Celso that
we were sending him a letter to confirm our understanding from the previous
meeting, that they are linking the approval of the Anex 4/Consent to changes
in the contact. and that they refused to sign the original consent language.
For avoidance of doubt, the text of both versions are included in the letter.
He said that our understanding was correct and that he would answer in the
affirmative.
He was not familiar with the original text. I showed him my copy with the
three initials. He asked whose initials were from Furnas. (I don't know - was
not present at that meeting. Rick and John may know).
Roberto de la Nina gave him the background from Furnas side.
Tariff and Commissioning.
Celso started the session by drawing a diagram of the Contractual Obligation
provisions compared to the Current Situation. He wanted to lead us to pay
the fuel differential, from 100% dispatch or alternatively buy from the MAE
(lower cost to us).
[Comment.- Irrespective of the Force Majeure arguments that we have, the MAE
make up possibility has to be used carefully to avoid falling into the trap,
by precedent, or assuming a market exposure that we presently do not have.]
I replied that his reading of the Contract was correct, except that he did
not read the Force Majeure section. We had the obligation to change to gas
on the dates he mentioned, except that we have a Force Majeure due to the
Government Actions, and therefore we have the right to change the schedule.
Celso replied that his people did not think this fit the case; i.e.
"additional difficulty of drilling through rocks"; I replied that we have a
strong case that everyone knows about, including the regulator Aneel, which
extended the use of the CCC until June 2001.
[Comment.- I expect Furnas to challenge our documentation to calculate how
many days we are entitled due to FM causes. At the end there will be a
"negotiated agreement", or the result or arbitration.]
Aneel Authorization.- I told him that we needed to bring him up to date
about Aneel's approval.
Aneel sent us a letter that we were not authorized to operate in Combined
Cycle, not that we had CCC account coverage during for CC operation.
Gave him a copy of the letter of our request to Aneel asking for both ; CC
and CCC coverage. We were ready for 480 MW, but on diesel.
Celso asked what we would do if we got CC authorization but not CCC
coverage.- I told him that we did not have the money to pay for the fuel,
that we would have to convert back to Simple Cycle, use the current
authorization for minimum use and wait for the gas to be available to go
through commissioning.
He said that under the contract we are obligated to provide power; that he
would buy from the MAE and sent us the bill. I told him that under the
Contract we can change the gas-change-over date because of FM. During a FM
period our mutual obligations would cease, except that they in this case they
had a capacity payment obligation given that the cause was Government
action.
He understood that they have a right to cancel the Contract after 12 months
[Comment - but they would have the MAE exposure as well for the Initial
Contracts]
Laine gave him an update of the ridge contruction and the parallel path that
we will take on Ridge 10; drill and also seek a permit for a partial crossing
of the first crest, drilling through the second crest, all withing the
existing ROW.
Laine explained the processes and limitatios of returnind to SC operations
and then back again to CC gas comissioning.

Our Proposal.- Our proposal is that we get authorization to enter into
operation as combined cycle unit; the CCC administration pays for the diesel,
and receives the gas revenues as compensation. This keeps us and Furnas at
the Contract equilibrium, and the Brazilian electric system has 480 MW
combined cycle plant; providing stability to that area.
Under this proposal, until the gas gets there to start commissioning, ONS
would dispatch the power plant according to economic dispatch at R$110/Mwhr;
minimum 290 MW. The CCC covers the actual dispatch the MRE cover the dispatch
to the Initial Contracts with Furnas.
I suggested that they join us for that petition to Aneel. He called Mario
Santos to set up a meeting, to enlist the help of ONS in that petition as
well.
The meeting is set up for Wednesday at 9:30 AM. To prepare we need to
provide the factual information, heat rates, costs, etc.