IV. Procedural Matters

By Resolution ALJ 176-3115, dated June 19, 2003, the Commission preliminarily designated the captioned application as "ratesetting" with hearings indicated. Notice of the application appeared in the Commission's June 10, 2003, Daily Calendar. Since there is no objection to the ratesetting categorization of this proceeding, we affirm that this is a ratesetting proceeding.

On July 1, 2003, ORA filed a protest to the application because SDG&E included SONGS non-energy costs in its 2004 ERRA revenue requirement forecast. ORA protested on the basis that D.02-10-062 did not authorize SDG&E to include non-fuel costs in its ERRA. ORA did not dispute any of SDG&E's other forecast assumptions or any of its other proposals set forth in the ERRA application.

A Prehearing Conference (PHC) held on August 14, 2003 was continued to September 24, 2003. At the continued PHC, SDG&E identified supplemental testimony it intended to introduce in this proceeding. That supplemental testimony proposed that SONGS nonfuel costs be recorded in the NGBA and taken out of its 2004 ERRA revenue requirement forecast. As discussed above, ORA, has withdrawn its protest.

This matter is now uncontested and hearings are not necessary. The assigned ALJ required SDG&E and ORA to file a joint brief to place SDG&E's supplemental testimony in the record and to obtain information on the merits and reasonableness of including the NGBA proposal in this proceeding. That joint brief was filed on October 17, 2003. This matter was submitted on October 27, 2003.