Puc Docket No

PUC DOCKET NO. 22355 SOAH DOCKET NO. 473-00-1020

APPLICATION OF RELIANT § BEFORE THE STATE OFFICE ENERGY HL&P FOR APPROVAL § OF UNBUNDLED COST OF SERVICE § OF ADMINISTRATIVE RATE PURSUANT TO PURA § 39.201 § AND PUBLIC UTILITY COMMISSION § HEARINGS SUBSTANTIVE RULE § 25.344 § §

RELIANT ENERGY HL&P'S NOTICE OF CONFIDENTIAL RESPONSE TO CITY OF HOUSTON’S FIRST REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

Reliant Energy HL&P (HL&P) received City of Houston’s (HOU) first set of requests for information (RFI) on April 28, 2000. HL&P’s responses to the requests listed below contain sensitive commercial information that is considered confidential and, as a result, will be filed under the Protected Material or Highly Sensitive Protected Material classifications pursuant to the protective order in this docket. This notice is being filed to comply with the requirements of paragraph 4 of that protective order.

Request No. HOU 1-2

The information contained in HL&P's response to Request No. HOU 1-2 is

Highly Sensitive Protected Material and is exempt from disclosure pursuant to § 552.110 of the

Public Information Act. See TEX. GOV. CODE ANN. § 552.110 (Vernon Supp. 2000). In response to this RFI, HL&P will provide copies of the executive summaries of several environmental studies performed by Sargent and Lundy for Reliant Energy. The full studies are being provided, under the Highly Sensitive Protected Material classification pursuant to the terms of the protective order in this docket, in response to Request No. HOU 1-3. These studies, and their executive summaries, contain sensitive commercial information, such as unit heat rates, fuel forecasts (including coal and natural gas prices), and escalation factors for fuel, operation and maintenance, and capital costs. Disclosure of this information would cause substantial harm to the competitive position of Reliant Energy as Reliant Energy is in direct competition with other electric generation providers. HL&P takes active measures to maintain this information confidential both within the company and prevents its disclosure outside the company, except pursuant to protective orders or confidentiality agreements such as that being used in this Docket

No. 22355. This information is highly valuable to Reliant Energy and to its competitors in the electric generation industry. In addition, these studies, as well as their executive summaries, are subject to a confidentiality agreement between Reliant Energy and Sargent and Lundy. For the limited purposes of the proceedings in this docket, Sargent and Lundy has agreed to the disclosure of this information provided, however, that the information is protected under the

Highly Sensitive Protected Material classification of the protective order in this docket. Counsel for HL&P has reviewed the information sufficiently to state in good faith that the information is exempt from public disclosure under the Public Information Act and merits the Protected

Materials designation.

Request No. HOU 1-3

Public Information Act. See TEX. GOV. CODE ANN. § 552.110 (Vernon Supp. 2000). In response to this RFI, HL&P will provide copies of several environmental studies performed by Sargent and Lundy for Reliant Energy. These studies contain sensitive commercial information, such as unit heat rates, fuel forecasts (including coal and natural gas prices), and escalation factors for fuel, operation and maintenance, and capital costs. Disclosure of this information would cause substantial harm to the competitive position of Reliant Energy as Reliant Energy is in direct competition with other electric generation providers. HL&P takes active measures to maintain this information confidential both within the company and prevents its disclosure outside the company, except pursuant to protective orders or confidentiality agreements such as that being used in this Docket No. 22355. This information is highly valuable to Reliant Energy and to its competitors in the electric generation industry. In addition, these studies, as well as their executive summaries, are subject to a confidentiality agreement between Reliant Energy and

Sargent and Lundy. For the limited purposes of the proceedings in this docket, Sargent and

Lundy has agreed to the disclosure of this information provided, however, that the information is protected under the Highly Sensitive Protected Material classification of the protective order in this docket. Counsel for HL&P has reviewed the information sufficiently to state in good faith that the information is exempt from public disclosure under the Public Information Act and merits the Protected Materials designation.

Request No. HOU 1-10

Highly Sensitive Protective Material and is exempt from disclosure pursuant to § 552.110 of the

Public Information Act. See TEX. GOV. CODE ANN. § 552.110 (Vernon Supp. 2000). The documents contain information provided by vendors regarding pricing for NOx reduction projects at plants and units owned by other utilities. This information is commercially sensitive information of the vendors. Disclosure of this information would cause substantial harm to the competitive position of those vendors because they are in direct competition with providers of similar services. Moreover, this information is commercially sensitive information of the utilities who own the plants and units. Counsel for HL&P has reviewed the information sufficiently to state in good faith that the information is exempt from public disclosure under the

Public Information Act and merits the Protected Materials designation.

Highly Sensitive Protective Material and is exempt from disclosure pursuant to § 552.110 of the

Public Information Act. See TEX. GOV. CODE ANN. § 552.110 (Vernon Supp. 2000). In response to this RFI, HL&P will provide annual per-unit generation estimates for each year from 2001-

2010 for certain generating units. Disclosure of this information would cause substantial harm to the competitive position of Reliant Energy as Reliant Energy is in direct competition with other electric generation providers. HL&P takes active measures to maintain this information confidential both within the company and prevents its disclosure outside the company, except pursuant to protective orders or confidentiality agreements such as that being used in this Docket

No. 22355. This information is highly valuable to Reliant Energy and to its competitors in the electric generation industry. Counsel for HL&P has reviewed the information sufficiently to state in good faith that the information is exempt from public disclosure under the Public

Information Act and merits the Protected Materials designation. Request No. HOU 1-15

Public Information Act. See TEX. GOV. CODE ANN. § 552.110 (Vernon Supp. 2000). In response to this RFI, HL&P will provide the outage durations that will be required to install certain NOx reduction technologies. This information can be used to predict when Reliant Energy's generating units will be out of service, which could be used to influence the market price of electricity. Disclosure of this information would also cause substantial harm to the competitive position of Reliant Energy as Reliant Energy is in direct competition with other electric generation providers. HL&P takes active measures to maintain this information confidential both within the company and prevents its disclosure outside the company, except pursuant to protective orders or confidentiality agreements such as that being used in this Docket No. 22355.

This information is highly valuable to Reliant Energy and to its competitors in the electric generation industry. Counsel for HL&P has reviewed the information sufficiently to state in good faith that the information is exempt from public disclosure under the Public Information

Act and merits the Protected Materials designation.

Public Information Act. See TEX. GOV. CODE ANN. § 552.110 (Vernon Supp. 2000). In response to this RFI, HL&P will provide the outage schedule for installation of certain NOx reduction technologies. This information details when Reliant Energy's generating units will be out of service, which could be used to influence the market price of electricity. Disclosure of this information would also cause substantial harm to the competitive position of Reliant Energy as

Reliant Energy is in direct competition with other electric generation providers. HL&P takes active measures to maintain this information confidential both within the company and prevents its disclosure outside the company, except pursuant to protective orders or confidentiality agreements such as that being used in this Docket No. 22355. This information is highly valuable to Reliant Energy and to its competitors in the electric generation industry. Counsel for

HL&P has reviewed the information sufficiently to state in good faith that the information is exempt from public disclosure under the Public Information Act and merits the Protected

Public Information Act. See TEX. GOV. CODE ANN. § 552.110 (Vernon Supp. 2000). In response to this RFI, HL&P will provide the estimated heat rate impacts that will result from the installation of certain environmental technologies on certain generating units. This information will suggest the additional fuel costs per unit that result from the installation of these environmental technologies. Disclosure of this information would cause substantial harm to the competitive position of Reliant Energy as Reliant Energy is in direct competition with other electric generation providers. HL&P takes active measures to maintain this information confidential both within the company and prevents its disclosure outside the company, except pursuant to protective orders or confidentiality agreements such as that being used in this Docket No. 22355. This information is highly valuable to Reliant Energy and to its competitors in the electric generation industry. Counsel for HL&P has reviewed the information sufficiently to state in good faith that the information is exempt from public disclosure under the Public

Information Act and merits the Protected Materials designation.

Public Information Act. See TEX. GOV. CODE ANN. § 552.110 (Vernon Supp. 2000). In response to this RFI, HL&P will provide copies of studies that examine the economic viability, by unit, of certain environmental expenditures as compared to retiring the unit. These studies contain unit- specific information including per-unit operation and maintenance costs and per-unit capital costs. Disclosure of this information would cause substantial harm to the competitive position of Reliant Energy as Reliant Energy is in direct competition with other electric generation providers. HL&P takes active measures to maintain this information confidential both within the company and prevents its disclosure outside the company, except pursuant to protective orders or confidentiality agreements such as that being used in this Docket No. 22355. This information is highly valuable to Reliant Energy and to its competitors in the electric generation industry.

Counsel for HL&P has reviewed the information sufficiently to state in good faith that the information is exempt from public disclosure under the Public Information Act and merits the

Protected Materials designation. Request No. HOU 1-49

Public Information Act. See TEX. GOV. CODE ANN. § 552.110 (Vernon Supp. 2000). In response to this RFI, HL&P will provide estimates of annual NOx emissions for each year from 2003-2010 for certain generation units. These are projections of Reliant Energy's future operations. This information, when combined with the details provided in the Sargent and Lundy studies, could be used to calculate unit capacity factors and expected run times for individual units. This information could be used to influence the market price for electricity. Disclosure of this information would also cause substantial harm to the competitive position of Reliant Energy as

Public Information Act. See TEX. GOV. CODE ANN. § 552.110 (Vernon Supp. 2000). In response to this RFI, HL&P will provide information concerning possible revenues from the sale of SO2 allowances. Some of the documents that will be produced in response to this RFI contained detailed information regarding unit operating characteristics. In addition, some of the documents contain information directly relating to the settlement of litigation with Northwestern Resources.

The settlement sets forth how certain fuel prices will be calculated in the future. The settlement agreement is commercially sensitive and the agreement itself requires the parties to seek the highest level of confidentiality available when disclosure is required. Disclosure of this information would also cause substantial harm to the competitive position of Reliant Energy as

Materials designation. Date: May 18, 2000

Respectfully submitted,

______THOMAS B. HUDSON HUGH RICE KELLY State Bar No. 10168500 Executive Vice President and Graves, Dougherty, Hearon & Moody, P.C. General Counsel P.O. Box 98 State Bar No. 11220500 Austin, Texas 78767 GEORGE W. SCHALLES, III Managing Attorney SCOTT E. ROZZELL Regulatory Law State Bar No. 17359800 State Bar No. 17725500 PAUL E. PFEFFER P.O. Box 61867 State Bar No. 24013322 Houston, Texas 77208 GRETCHEN ALLEN (713) 207-7418 State Bar No. 00796624 (713) 207-0141 (fax) Baker Botts L.L.P. 910 Louisiana Street Houston, TX 77002 (713) 229-1835 (713) 229-1522 (facsimile) CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

I hereby certify that a true and correct copy of the foregoing document has been hand- delivered, sent overnight mail or sent U.S. mail to all parties of record, on the ____ day of May, 2000.