2 Notices of Intent (NOIs) to Claim Intervenor Compensation

The prehearing conference was held on February 3, 2006. Aglet Consumer Alliance (Aglet) and The Utility Reform Network (TURN) timely filed NOIs to claim intervenor compensation within 30 days of the prehearing conference, on February 23, 2006 and March 6, 2006, respectively. This ruling addresses these NOIs, as provided below.

Public Utilities Code Section 1804(a)(2)2 provides that NOIs shall include a statement of the nature and extent of the customer's planned participation in the proceeding and an itemized estimate of the compensation that the customer expects to request. In addition, the NOI may include a showing by the customer that participation in the proceeding will pose a significant financial hardship. If such a showing is made, the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ), in consultation with the Assigned Commissioner, is to issue a preliminary ruling addressing whether the customer will be eligible for an award of compensation and whether a showing of significant financial hardship has been made. (§ 1804(b)(1).) Since both Aglet and TURN purport to make a showing that participation will pose a significant financial hardship, this ruling addresses their eligibility for intervenor compensation.

In D.98-04-059 (79 CPUC2d 628), the Commission directed that if a ruling is issued as a result of the filing of a NOI, the ALJ should rule on whether the intervenor is a customer as defined in § 1802(b),3 and which category of customer the intervenor represents. (79 CPUC2d at 649.) The customer category determines the standard of "significant financial hardship" that applies.

Aglet, an unincorporated nonprofit association registered with the California Secretary of State, states that it is a group authorized pursuant to its articles of organization and bylaws to represent and advocate the interests of residential and small commercial customers of electrical, gas, water, and telephone utilities in California. TURN states that it is authorized pursuant to its articles of incorporation to represent the interests of residential ratepayers. Both Aglet and TURN meet the definition of customer as defined in § 1802(b)(1)(C). The comparison test for significant financial hardship, in which the cost of participation is compared to the economic interest of the individual members of the organization in order to determine whether there will be significant financial hardship, applies to both Aglet and TURN.

Aglet has shown that it meets the comparison test in that typical residential bills of $800 annually are much less than the estimated cost of participation. Aglet meets the requirements of § 1802(g). In addition, Aglet received a finding that it met the significant financial hardship test in a ruling issued in Application (A.) 05-06-006 on November 15, 2005. Since this proceeding was initiated within one year of the November 15, 2005 finding, and because no one responded to Aglet's NOI to rebut the presumption of significant financial hardship, Aglet is presumed to be eligible for compensation in this proceeding. (§ 1804(b)(1).)

TURN elected to rely on the rebuttable presumption in § 1804(b)(1) to make its showing of significant financial hardship in this proceeding. TURN received a finding of significant financial hardship in A.05-02-027 in a November 4, 2005 ruling. Since this proceeding was initiated within one year of the November 4, 2005 finding, and because no one responded to TURN's NOI to rebut the presumption of significant financial hardship, TURN is presumed to be eligible for compensation in this proceeding.

Aglet intends to actively participate by participating in workshops, preparing and filing comments, preparing and defending testimony, and filing other pleadings as necessary. Aglet intents to focus on load migration, lumpiness of loads, transfer prices, market power in local areas, and overall cost effectiveness of local area reliability proposals. TURN expects to be an active participant in all phases of the proceeding, as it was in the predecessor resource adequacy proceeding. With respect to local resource adequacy requirements, the focus of Phase 1, TURN expects to address in particular the potential for market power and policies to mitigate its effects on consumer costs. These are issues which have been raised in this proceeding.

To satisfy the requirement that the NOI include an estimate of the compensation the customer expects to request, Aglet expects to request compensation of $48,540, consisting of $45,000 in professional time, $2,000 in compensation-related time, $800 travel time, and $740 for other costs such as copying, postage, travel costs, and FAX charges. TURN estimates its total expected compensation at $146,000, consisting of $99,000 for its attorney, $44,000 for its consultant, and $3,000 in other direct expenses.

To satisfy the statement in § 1801.3(f) about unproductive or unnecessary participation, Aglet states that it has conferred with TURN regarding the material issues identified at the current stage of the proceeding with the goal of minimizing duplication of effort regarding issues of concern to residential and small commercial customers. TURN similarly states that it will coordinate as much as possible with Aglet and with other intervenors, including the Division of Ratepayer Advocates (DRA), in order to avoid unnecessary duplication of effort. Both Aglet and TURN note that they represent only small customer interests. DRA on the other hand represents consumer interests generally.

The planned participation of Aglet and TURN and their planned coordination with DRA and other intervenors should result in their effective and efficient participation in this proceeding.

Aglet and TURN are eligible for awards of compensation in this proceeding. This finding of eligibility does not mean that they are automatically entitled to intervenor compensation. Pursuant to § 1804, they each must make a substantial contribution to the Commission decision before they are awarded any intervenor compensation.

2 All code section references are to the Public Utilities Code.

3 A "customer" is defined in § 1802(b)(1) to mean: "(A) A participant representing consumers, customers, or subscribers of any electrical, gas, telephone, telegraph, or water corporation that is subject to the jurisdiction of the commission. (B) A representative who has been authorized by a customer. (C) A representative of a group or organization authorized pursuant to its articles of incorporation or bylaws to represent the interests of residential customers, or to represent small commercial customers who receive bundled electric service from an electrical corporation."

Previous PageTop Of PageNext PageGo To First Page