Parties Seeks Report on California Direct Access Phase-In

Several direct access parties have petitioned the California PUC to direct the investor-owned utilities to report on the status of the most recent direct access Notice of Intent period, and to update their websites to reflect current room under the direct access cap.

The Retail Energy Supply Association, Alliance for Retail Energy Markets, and Direct Access Customer Coalition said that, currently, no public information is available regarding: (1) the results of the direct access enrollment process for Year 3 (if room becomes available) and Year 4 that occurred on January 13, 2012 and thereafter; or (2) the number of customers that submitted a notice to switch for Year 3, but failed to complete the Direct Access Service Request (DASR) process and were placed on Transitional Bundled Service (TBS).

The January 2012 Notice of Intent period completed the final phase-in of direct access ordered in D.10-03-022.

As previously reported, market participants unofficially projected that the Year 4 direct access cap was hit on the first day of the January window, but the Notice of Intent submissions are not official until verified by the utilities.

Specifically, for this period, the direct access parties are seeking a report on the number of customers submitting six-month switching notices, the load associated with those submissions, the number of customers and the associated load that was rejected, and the amount of time it took to fill the caps for Year 3 and Year 4. The requested information is the same type provided in the 2011 Energy Division status report.

The direct access parties noted that time period for the utilities to respond to the six-month switching notices concluded by the end of February 2012, and, therefore, the requested information should be available to PUC Energy Division Staff by no later than March 1, 2012.

Additionally, the direct access parties requested, for Year 1, Year 2, and Year 3, information on the number of customers and their associated load that submitted six-month switching notices, but failed to complete the DASR process in the time required and were, therefore, transferred by the utilities to Transitional Bundled Service.

"This information would be valuable in determining whether any changes should be made to the enrollment process in the future should the Legislature authorize further expansion of direct access and in providing insight regarding the effect of regulatory uncertainty regarding non-bypassable charges and other direct access regulatory requirements," the direct access parties said.

The direct access parties requested that the status report be provided by March 30, 2012.

The direct access parties noted that they have been compelled to file motions to obtain such reports for each of the prior phase-in periods, and asked that, in the future, they be relieved of the obligation to file a formal motion to request a direct access status report.

Furthermore, the direct access parties said that they were unable to find any information on the utilities' websites specifying the available room under the direct access cap, and requested that the PUC direct the utilities to update their webpages promptly to: (1) reflect the current status of direct access; (2) provide no less than monthly notice to customers of available cap room; and (3) post when each utility is accepting six-month notices from customers to apply for available cap room.

The direct access parties' request was filed February 23. Matters reviewed the utilities' websites on March 1. Matters notes that as of March 1, SCE's website and SDG&E's website state that there is no room under the 2013 direct access cap.