17.20.815    LINEAR FACILITIES, ESTIMATED ANNUAL COSTS

(1) An application for a linear facility must contain a detailed analysis of the annual costs of the facility for purposes of comparing the facility with alternatives, as required by 75-20-301 , MCA, including detail on the capital and operating costs and operational characteristics of the facility.

(2) All estimated construction costs must be escalated to the appropriate date in the construction schedule as explained in ARM 17.20.811(6) .

(3) An application must contain information about the likely methods of financing construction of the facility. For facilities taking longer than one year to construct, allowance for funds used during construction must be added to the escalated construction costs to calculate the capital costs as of the date the facility is placed in commercial operation.

(4) Amortization costs must be calculated by standard industry practice for the estimated life of the bonds or other borrowing, or for the economic life of the facility.

(5) Costs for the first, fifth and tenth full operational year of the facility must be estimated. If current costs are used as a basis they must be escalated, using an appropriate index or indices of recent cost escalation specified in ARM 17.20.811(6) , to the first full operational year. The same index or other department approved index or indices must be used to escalate operating costs over the life of the facility.

(a) Annual costs must be disaggregated by relevant categories including, but not limited to, amortization, depreciation, taxes, insurance, interim replacements, any other capital-related annual costs, operational labor costs, operational material costs, pumping costs, water costs, waste disposal costs, and maintenance costs. Assistance shall be specified. All assumptions used in estimating the costs must be explained.

(6) An application must contain a description of design capacity and expected operational characteristics of the facility.

(7) For pipelines, energy transport costs for the first, fifth and tenth full operational year must be calculated by dividing the appropriate year's costs by the expected annual net throughput of the facility during full operation.

(8) For pipelines, levelized energy transport costs must be calculated by dividing levelized annual costs by the expected annual net throughput of the facility during full operation.

(9) First, fifth and tenth year and levelized costs must be calculated in constant dollars for a specified year, preferably the year of application. The index used to convert nominal to constant dollars must be specified.

(10) An application must contain an explanation of the methods, including rules of thumb, used to estimate costs and operating characteristics.

(11) An application must contain estimates of the accuracy of all costs and operating characteristics.

History: 75-20-105, MCA; IMP, 75-20-105, 75-20-211, 75-20-215, MCA; NEW, 1984 MAR p. 1844, Eff. 12/28/84; TRANS, from DNRC, 1996 MAR p. 2863; AMD, 2005 MAR p. 252, Eff. 2/11/05.