Calif. Draft Would Set 2013 DWR Bond, Power Charges

A draft California PUC decision would adopt 2013 Power Charges for the Department of Water Resources (DWR), and would also set the 2013 DWR Bond Charge.

The DWR Bond Charge of $860 million is allocated to the customers of Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas & Electric at $0.00493 per kWh.

Under the proposed decision, "the Power Charges of $1 million, to provide the necessary funds to cover DWR's 2013 energy costs, are allocated to the customers of PG&E and SDG&E at $0.24341 and $0.12327 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), respectively."

Under the draft, the Department of Water Resources will:

i. Return approximately $48 million to Pacific Gas and Electric Company's electric customers in 2013;

ii. Return approximately $81 million to Southern California Edison Company's customers in 2013; and

iii. Collect approximately $3 million from San Diego Gas & Electric Company customers in 2013.

iv. These allocations result in a reduction to the 2013 Power Charges allocated to Pacific Gas and Electric Company's electric customers of $26 million, to the Power Charges allocated to Southern California Edison Company's customers of $70 million. Power Charges of approximately $36 million are allocated to SDG&E's electric customers.

Additionally, the draft order would defer, to a separate decision, consideration of SDG&E's methodology for allocating any negative DWR revenue requirement to SDG&E customers.

The Alliance of Retail Energy Markets had protested SDG&E's proposal due to inconsistent language which AReM said indicated that such returned funds would not be allocated to direct access customers, even in situations where direct access customers contributed to the payments.

R. 11-03-006