3. Requested Relief

SDG&E filed its original expedited application on April 9, 2012, and filed an amendment to its application on June 6, 2012.

In its original application, SDG&E sought expedited authorization to collect from ratepayers a projected $53 million ERRA undercollection (as of June 30, 2012). SDG&E also sought approval to collect this amount over a 12-month amortization period, beginning on July 1, 2012, or whenever SDG&E's 2012 ERRA forecast is implemented. According to SDG&E, the primary causes of this undercollection are the delay in 2012 revenue implementation, sales coming in below forecasted levels, and the natural seasonality gap in revenues versus expenses. SDG&E also states that "given the current assumptions and proposed amortization, SDG&E predicts that the ERRA balance will self-correct by the third quarter and avoid another trigger situation for the remainder of 2012. Any changes or delays in these assumptions, however, may increase SDG&E's risk of triggering again in 2012. In particular, the sensitivity surrounding the assumptions at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) with respect to outages, 2012 revenue implementation, customer sales, gas prices, and the amortization proposal herein can change the final numbers as the year progresses."4

In its June 6 amendment, SDG&E revised the projected June 30, 2012, undercollection to $49.9 million, and proposed that it be collected from ratepayers over a 12-month amortization period, beginning no later than September 1, 2012.

If the requested relief, as amended, were granted, SDG&E projects the following bill impacts reflecting the amortization of the undercollection:

Class

Usage

(kWh)

Bill
Today

Bill
post-trigger

Change
($)

Change
(%)

Residential--Inland

500

$81.32

$81.88

$0.56

0.7 %

Residential--Coastal

500

$88.10

$89.21

$1.11

1.3 %

Residential--Inland

1,000

$216.28

$221.23

$4.95

2.3 %

Residential--Coastal

1,000

$224.98

$230.48

$5.50

2.4 %

Small Commercial

1,500 secondary service

   

$5.29

1.8 %

SDG&E's April 9, 2012 expedited application was accompanied by a motion seeking shortened protest period. The assigned Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) granted SDG&E's motion but specified that Expedited Protests shall be due April 25, 2012. Utility Consumers' Action Network (UCAN) filed a protest on April 20, 2012, and Division of Ratepayer Advocates (DRA) protested the application on April 23, 2012. SDG&E replied to the protests on April 27, 2012. At the suggestion of the assigned ALJ, a workshop was held on May 22, 2012, to discuss SDG&E's application in greater detail. A Prehearing Conference (PHC) was held on May 30, 2012. At the PHC, SDG&E agreed to amend its original application in order to update the natural gas price that underlies its forecasts, in order to reflect as up-to-date market conditions as possible. As noted above, SDG&E filed and served this amendment on June 6, 2012. DRA and UCAN responded to SDG&E's amended application on June 13, 2012; both parties informed the assigned ALJ that they did not intend to protest the amended application.

4 See April 9, 2012 Prepared Direct Testimony of Gregory D. Shimansky at GDS-5.

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