4. PG&E's Request for Confidential Treatment of the Settlement Payment

In a motion filed contemporaneously with the application, PG&E requests that the amount of the settlement payment it proposes to make to Sunnyside be kept confidential, since "making this information public will give other QF entities engaged in Standard Offer contracts with PG&E information regarding PG&E's current strategic approach to resolving similarly situated contested Standard Offer contracts." PG&E also notes that it is required under the terms of its settlement agreement to keep the amount of the payment confidential.

Pursuant to Pub. Util. Code § 583, PG&E has filed under seal a full, non-public set of papers that includes the amount of the settlement payment to Sunnyside, as well as a redacted, public version of the papers that omits only the settlement amount.

We have granted similar requests for confidential treatment of QF settlements in many other decisions, some of which involved keeping the entire settlement agreement confidential. See, e.g., D.00-05-046, 6 CPUC3d at 203-04; D.00-11-041 at 9-10 (citing cases and granting confidential treatment for entire settlement agreement); D.02-06-074 at 6-7. We see no reason to depart from that approach here, especially since PG&E is seeking to keep confidential only the amount of its settlement payment to Sunnyside.