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Enron Mail |
The following is a summary of the OCSPBC meeting held this morning in
Toronto: EEI Experience - Andy Katz of EEI together with Elizabeth Sager of ENA legal and David Perlman of Constellation presented a history of how the EEI master was created and the major issues that arose in creating the document. Based on the crowd reaction to the presentation it was apparent that there was support for developing industry standard documentation. The crowd seemed favour recreating the industry consensus approach followed by the EEI master working and drafting groups. Starting Place; Physical vs Financial nature of the market - Notwithstanding the consensus to move forward, there were two alternative approaches proposed as a starting place. I proposed that the group start with the EEI master, create a Canadian version of this document and then proceed to create a detailed description of the products. Greg Johnston's work will be of great benefit on this front. The group was anxious to get a copy of Enron's version of the "Canadianized" EEI master. Ontario Power Generation proposed an alternative form that was based off of an ISDA. OPG's rationale for this approach was that the IMO market rules do not provide for physical transactions to take place. This assertion was hotly debated. The IMO experts on hand did nothing of use to clarify the matter and only said that the market rules were "subject to interpretation." My understanding, and I welcome any support or criticism, is that notwithstanding the pool settlement mechanism that is provided (and which is somewhat similar to NEPOOL) deals can be structured which create an obligation on a Seller to deliver, or cause to be delivered, physical power. Most parties present supported the Enron position and preferred to start with the EEI document. I suspect that this support was mostly based on animosity toward OPG rather than support for Enron or even an understanding of the issue. Next Steps - The group concluded that the main issue for the next meeting should be a discussion of the physical/financial issue outlined above and that would help to determine the appropriate starting place. The next meeting is scheduled for November 22, 2000. The group then formed an initial drafting committee consisting of: Enron Canada AMPCO TransAlta a lawyer from Smith Lyons (it was not apparent that he was representing any client) Martine Band, a lawyer from Power Budd (it was not apparent that she was representing any client but she was the main drafter of the market rules) Toronto Hydro Dan Pastoric (formerly a consultant and now with Hydro One) AE Sharp OPG the IMO Bruce Power (British Energy) SMS Energy As I think it would be of great benefit to provide the OCSPBC working group with a draft of the Canadian EEI form that Greg has been preparing, I think it is imperative that we resolve the outstanding issues. In this regard I suggest that Elizabeth, Greg and I have a conference call either Friday or Monday and plan to have a draft ready by the end of next week. Greg let me know if this is a possibility. If anyone else wants to be involved in the conference call please let me know. In the meantime I will work on developing a product description for Ontario which should help get OPG over the hump on the physical/financial issue. I will also review the OPG form of enabling agreement. Regards CJG
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