The clearing member and maintenance margin will be established at $9,000; the member margin at $9,900; and the customer margin at $12,150. The spot month assessment, which takes effect at the close of business on the day prior to the last trading day, will be $3,000.
Intra-commodity margins for clearing members and maintenance purposes will be $200 on spreads involving the first through sixth months; $100 on spreads involving the seventh through 12th months. Initial margins on those spreads will be 110% of those rates for members and 135% of those rates for customers.
Inter-commodity spread rates will also be recognized between the Mid-Columbia futures contract and the natural gas and other western electricity futures contracts. These rates vary depending on the other futures contract.
The contract will be traded electronically along with the other exchange electricity contracts on the NYMEX ACCESS® system, with the session beginning at 7 PM on Sundays and 4 PM on Mondays through Thursdays and ending at 2:30 PM Mondays through Fridays. It will begin trading at 4 PM on September 14, which marks the start of the September 15 electronic trading session.
There will be 11 months listed for trading, beginning with November 2000.
Delivery may occur at any of the switchyards associated with the Rocky Reach, Rock Island, Wanapum, and Priest Rapids hydro-projects. Other than delivery location, the contract will reflect the terms of the Exchange's California/Oregon border and Palo Verde electricity futures contracts including a unit size of 432 megawatt hours (Mwh) of firm electricity, delivered at a rate of one megawatt per hour, with the size of the actual delivery varying according to the number of on-peak days during the delivery month.
Other terms and conditions paralleling those in all of the Exchange's existing electricity futures contracts, include:
Delivery Period: 16 on-peak hours: hour ending 0700 (6 AM) Pacific time to hour ending 2200 (10 PM) Pacific time on each business day of the delivery month.
Termination of Trading: Trading in the delivery month shall cease on the fourth business day prior to the first day of the delivery month.
Prices and Fluctuation: Prices shall be quoted in dollars and cents per megawatt hour. The minimum price fluctuation will be $0.01 (1¢) per megawatt hour. There is no maximum daily price fluctuation.
