3. Discussion

Modesto and Corona are both "local publicly owned electric utilities" as defined in Section 9604, and both of them are registered ESPs.¹ Modesto provides retail electric distribution service to over 100,000 customers in Stanislaus County. In addition, pursuant to Section 9610, Modesto shares a service territory with Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) in an area of 400 square miles (Joint Electric Distribution Service area) which lies immediately to the north of its traditional service area. Modesto does not serve any load through direct access transactions at this time. Corona serves retail electric customers both through its own distribution system and through direct access.

Modesto is concerned that language in D.05-03-013 is overly broad and might be interpreted by some parties to extend the Commission's jurisdiction beyond the intended direct access and CCA situations. In particular, Modesto is concerned that parties may interpret the decision as extending the Commission's jurisdiction to Modesto's electric distribution system in the Joint Electric Distribution Service Area simply because Modesto is coincidentally a registered, though inactive, ESP. Corona is likewise concerned that the Commission's statement regarding its jurisdiction is overly broad, and believes that the Commission should clearly articulate the limited extent of its jurisdiction with regard to direct access, particularly with respect to non-jurisdictional publicly-owned utilities that also happen to be ESPs.

In naming registered ESPs as respondents to this proceeding, it was not our intent to extend our jurisdiction to non-direct access services of publicly-owned utilities that also happen to be ESPs. The proposed modifications to Ordering Paragraph 1 of D.05-03-013 make clear that, with respect to RAR, the Commission's jurisdiction over ESPs extends only to direct access transactions. Likewise, with respect to CCAs, the modifications make clear that we are exercising our jurisdiction with respect to CCA transactions. In summary, the proposed modifications are consistent with our intent to subject direct access and CCA transactions to RAR, and they provide clarification regarding our jurisdiction with respect to ESPs and CCAs. The proposed modifications will therefore be adopted. We will also change "energy service provider" to "electric service provider" to reflect the statutory definitions in §§ 218.3 and 394(a).