M E M O R A N D U M

DATE:           May 7, 2003

TO:                Public Service Commission

FROM:          Division of Public Utilities

                        Lowell Alt, Director

                        Wesley Huntsman, Manager Customer Service 

                        Rea Petersen, Utility Complaint Specialist

RE:                 Dammeron Valley Water Works vs Utah Power & Light

                        Docket No. 03-035-04

Complaint Analysis: Carol Thorpe filed an informal complaint on behalf of Dammeron Corporation with the Division on November 5, 2002. In the complaint Ms. Thorpe claimed there had been six power surges during the year (2002) that had destroyed their equipment. Ms. Thorpe further claimed that three of the corporations well pumps had burned up causing the corporation to spend $30,000 in repairs due to the power surges even though there are surge protectors on the equipment according to the manufacturers specs. Ms. Thorpe wants UP&L to “loop the line” at their (UP&L’s) expense which in her opinion would prevent the power surges and resolve the problem.

Utah Power & Light engineers report they found nothing in their investigation to represent abnormal conditions as a result of the outages on the circuit that serves this customer. As part of the investigation the company installed a volt meter which verified the voltage was within the approved requirement in the Public Service Commission Rules R746-310-4.B.1. The engineer also reported that the customer has low voltage equipment protection installed on their (Dammeron’s) equipment but they do not have single phase protection equipment on the pumps which is the customers responsibility to provide as approved by the Public Service Commission (PSC) in Utah Power & Light’s tariff, Regulation 5, 2.(a). UP&L acknowledged the customer’s request that they (UP&L) install a duplicate feed (customer referred to as loop feed), which they are willing to do at the customers expense in accordance with their approved tariff in Regulation 12, 5.(b). In response to Ms. Thorpe’s statement that a public utility should provide adequate service. Utah Power does not guarantee constant or uninterrupted delivery of service which is approved in their tariff in Regulation 4, 4.

Recommendation: Based on the above information, the Division did not find that Utah Power & Light had violated any provision of statute, rule or tariff and recommends the complaint be dismissed.