California Energy Commission (CEC)

The CEC's focus in its brief is on the IEPR which the CEC issues biannually. In particular, the 2005 IEPR was designed to inform the IOUs in the drafting of their 2006 LTPPs. The CEC sets forth in its brief the history of the relationship between the CEC's IEPR process and the Commission's review of the IOUs' long-term plans, beginning with an ACR issued in the 2004 LTPP proceeding, R.04-04-003 on March 14, 2005, directing parties that the IEPR process is the appropriate venue for considering forecasting issues and that issued resolved in the IEPR would not be reconsidered in the LTPP. This message was repeated in the OIR issued February 16, 2006, and again in the Scoping Memo issued September 25, 2006.

The CEC's position is that the IOUs were clearly directed to utilize the CEC's 2005 IEPR, as updated, in preparing their forecasts of need and supply. From the CEC's perspective, the IOUs did not follow that directive. In particular, the CEC refers to SCE's use of its own numbers in its LTPP because SCE believes the CEC's numbers are too low. The CEC argues that SCE should not be allowed to do that as that constitutes an attempt to undermine the IEPR process and relitigate issues that were not to be raised.

The CEC also claims that the parties are to be bound by the CEC's policy on retirement and repowering of aging power plants. The only proper forum for litigating changes to those policies is in the IEPR process.

In summary, the CEC urges the Commission to find any attempts to relitigate load forecast, range of need, retirement of aging power plants or recommendations concerning renewable energy to be out of the scope of the LTPP proceeding and properly in the domain of the CEC's IEPR process.