Commercial Energy Seeks Show Cause Order Against PG&E Regarding Administration of
Direct Access Cap
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September 30, 2010
Commercial Energy of Montana,
under proceeding R. 07-05-025, petitioned the California PUC to issue an order to
show cause to Pacific Gas & Electric directing PG&E to demonstrate, "why it should
not be deemed out of compliance with the Commission's Decision (D.) 10-03-022, regarding
implementation of the reopening of Direct Access (DA)."
Commercial Energy alleged that prior to the Open Enrollment Window which opened on
April 11, 2010 under the phase-in of new direct access load, PG&E continued to accept
six-month notices of intent (NOI) from existing, pre-SB 695 direct access customers
to take direct access service.
Commercial Energy argued that such action by PG&E was contrary to D.10-03-022 issued
on March 15, 2010, in which, as argued by Commercial, the PUC found that, "SB 695
repealed the prior statutory provisions regarding the suspension of DA which had
been in effect since 2001, and replaced those provisions with a new statute, Public
Utilities Code section 365.1."
Accordingly, as of the effective date of D.10-03-022, grandfathered DA-eligible customers
lost their ability to submit at their discretion a six-month notice of intent to
leave for direct access (as provided under the old system), and instead were subject
to the open enrollment window and subsequent notice of intent periods established
by D.10-03-022, Commercial said. Although D.10-03-022 held that the initial open
enrollment window did not take effect until April 11, 2010, Commercial Energy argued
that the decision's other findings, including the elimination of the ability of grandfathered
DA-eligible customers to elect direct access service at any time, should be interpreted
as taking effect as of the date on which D.10-03-022 was issued.
Under this interpretation, Commercial Energy alleged that PG&E's acceptance of six-month
notices of intent from grandfathered DA-eligible customers for the time between March
15, 2010 and April 11, 2010 was improper.
Commercial Energy said that a PUC Staff report shows that 30 grandfathered DA-eligible
customers at PG&E submitted notices of intent between March 15, 2010 and April 11,
2010. The load associated with those customers reduced the amount of space available
for new load under the 2010 Load Cap by approximately 569 GWh, Commercial Energy
said.
Furthermore, even if the Commission were to find that grandfathered DA-eligible customers
had the right to submit six-month notices of intent between March 15, 2010 and April
11, 2010, Commercial Energy argued that PG&E's treatment of such load with respect
to the amount of space available to customers under the 2010 open enrollment window
was improper, as it did not follow the PUC's order in D.10-03-022.
According to Commercial Energy, PG&E simply subtracted the 569 GWh associated with
the grandfathered DA-eligible customers from the space available in the 2010 open
enrollment window, as opposed to subtracting the total from the total DA load cap
at PG&E, and then using that new total as a baseline to which a 35% percent cap for
the open enrollment window would be applied. PG&E's methodology reduced the amount
of load able to switch under the initial open enrollment window versus what would
have been permitted to switch had a new baseline been established, since the reduction
of 569 GWh was applied to only one period of the phase-in, rather than the load available
in each period being reduced (thereby lessening the impact to any one specific period).
Although PG&E's methodology does not change the total load cap, it did impact customers'
ability to successfully elect direct access service, particularly given the first-come,
first-served requirement. By applying all of the reduced cap amount to the initial
open enrollment window, certain customers were denied the ability to switch to direct
access who might have received that right had PG&E recalculated the baseline
and reduced the initial open enrollment window by a total of less than 569 GWh. Given
that the first-come, first served order resets in subsequent notice of intent period,
these customers are not guaranteed the ability to take DA service under a future
notice of intent period.
More specifically, PG&E accepted 1,008 GWh of direct access enrollments under the
open enrollment window, while a recalculated baseline would have allowed 1,378 GWh
of direct access enrollments (with reduced space available in later years), Commercial
said.
Commercial Energy reported that it submitted notices of intent on behalf of 1,300
customer Service Agreement Identification Numbers ("SAIDs") as part of the initial
open enrollment window. Commercial Energy was notified that only 27 of these SAIDs
were accepted, which was less than 5% of the total submitted usage or SAIDs. Commercial
Energy opted not to make offers to any of the accepted customers because of the disproportionate
cost of providing service to so few customers.
"[I]f PG&E had recalculated its base line amount of DA and recalculated the available
load for 2010, there would have been more load available for 2010, which would have
allowed more customers to enroll in DA during the OEW," Commercial Energy noted,
stating that it believed that it would have had enough customers accepted under the
new baseline to make serving customers economic.
Commercial Energy also said that for the 2011 DA enrollment period, a much higher
percentage of Commercial's potential customers were accepted. Commercial is in the
process of extending offers to all of its customers accepted for DA enrollment for
2011.
Commercial Energy asked that PG&E be ordered to: (a) disclose the number of customers
allowed to enroll between the effective date of D.10-03-022 and the effective date
of the open enrollment window (OEW) and the amount of GWHs associated with each such
customer; (b) disallow the 6-month notices to switch received between the effective
date of D.10-03-022 and the effective date of the OEW; (c) recalculate the amount
of DA available for 2010; (d) restore the DA queue created pursuant to D.10-03-022
and distribute expanded DA capacity to those entities who would have been entitled
to enroll during the OEW under the reconfigured queue; and reconfigure the queue
for 2011 in a manner consistent with the revised OEW for 2010.
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