John,
 
Goodness! Great questions!..I could answer some in 5 minutes but others would be a 2 hour discourse. First, I did get both your resume and letter and have taken it to our Human Resources department. I currently have 11 people on rotation(shift work), and 10 is the appropriate number for me to have on shift. One of my employees is interviewing for another opening on the floor on Friday and two others are looking to move. Julie Kearney (in our human resources department) will be gone today through Wednesday of next week. So by Thursday of next week we should be able to set up an interview schedule and go from there. 
 
I have answered a few of your questions in your email below. We can go over the others when we speak next. Thanks for the good questions.
 
Bill
 
 
     : Jhadams69@aol.com [mailto:Jhadams69@aol.com]
Sent: Monday, October 08, 2001 8:36 PM
To: Williams III, Bill
Subject: Homework



Hi Bill - 
I read through the stuff you gave me and I do have a few questions... First, did you get my resume and letter, and did they download OK?  I am looking forward to the interview and, assuming I do well, am anxious to get started.  So let me know about a timeline when you can, please. 

What kind of affect will a west-wide RTO have on Enron?  I saw in a couple of the newsletters that FERC is pushing hard for it.  -A west wide RTO is very good for Enron as it would facilitate moving energy around the grid and contribute to marketing efficiency.

"Wood also proposes FERC initiate a rulemaking on market design and structure, to translate the eight RTO functions in Order No. 2000 into concrete protocols for the RTO organizations."  Is there anywhere I can find out what the 8 RTO functions are?  You should be able to find more information regarding RTO's on the nerc and ferc websites (national energy reliability council and federal energy regulatory commision) 

A lot of information in the newsletters was about natural gas and the volatility in its cost.  Do you do any trading in gas?  We do not trade gas on real-time, but some of the forward traders pick up gas positions to hedge themselves against price volatility on the power side.
 
Canada -- New Alberta Power Plant.  Do you move any Canadian electricity?  We sell energy to Canadian entities frequently, though we do not schedule the energy into Canada. We deliver the energy to them at the BC-US border. 

The CPUC has suspended direct access switches.  What kind of impact does this have on trading?  How does California's Department of Water Resources and its liabilities fit into the mess in CA?  This requires a bit more of an explanation than I have a chance for here. 

Northwest utilities claimed they took an unwarranted $500 million beating in the 6 months of high spot prices.  A judge said they were "just and fair."  Will the denial of this claim affect the trading floor?  Yes, it means we do not have to spend months unwinding trades. In short, its good for Enron--and everyone else who bought and sold energy in the NW. 

Enron and PGE... There is a pending sale of PGE to NWN.  Will this have any effect on you?  To put it bluntly, will you still be able to hire from the outside?  Will the sale do anything to the $100 million line of credit that PGE obtained from Enron?   The sale to NW natural will not affect us other than driving up our stock price. 

How close are we to having BPA's transmission system under FERC jurisdiction?  What does Enron think of that, or do they care?
Dynegy, Exelon, Entergy, Cinergy -- who are these guys?    Dynegy and Exelon are power companies (like Enron)-Entergy and Cinergy are trading regions. And we would love to have BPA under FERC jurisdiction but it will likely not happen soon. 

"Exelon said ... it would reduce its ... 2001 estimates due to power market volatility and ... it would cut an (additional) 450 positions."   Does Enron employment fluctuate with the market, or did Exelon just do a shitty job?  That would be the latter. 

SoCalEd owes Enron a bunch of money.  What happens if it goes bankrupt?  How does that affect Enron overall, and would it change the daily trading process?  -Bankruptcy of SCE would not affect our trading, but I am not aware of what our exposure to SCE is. I believe it is minimal on the trading desk. 

Tell me about Qualifying Facility (QF) suppliers. This will take a while.

How will "green power" enter into your mix?  It doesn't yet. "Green power" just makes Oregonians and those in Northern California feel good. 

"Cal-ISO's director of grid planning ... testified that the cost  (of 1500 MW of new capacity) is justified as a way to prevent power sellers' market power and to deal with drought conditions in the PNW and CA that limit hydroelectricity production.  Those two issues loomed large as contributing factors in CA's energy crisis..."  As California creates new capacity, will that impact the ability of traders to do what they do, or will they just have more power to deal with? A long or short market is just a part of trading. For example, the market is currently experiencing some unit outages and has exhibited some volatility as a result. There is still a ton of capacity and the market is not moving as drastically as it might have.

All for now.  Thanks for the information. The acronyms are incredible.  It was like these things were written in a foreign language.  Looking forward to hearing from you.   The acronyms are incredible, but they all make sense after a while. 

John