IV. Standards Proposed in D.98-03-036

The proposed standards are as follows:

A. Standard 12. Restoration Criteria

The utility shall maintain sufficient resources to restore power within 24 hours to 90% of customers who lost service; within 48 hours to 95% of customers who lost power; and within 72 hours the remaining 5% of customers who lost power. Within 30 days of an emergency or major outage, the utility shall provide to CPUC designated staff data which permits an analysis of whether the utility met these restoration requirements.

Penalties

The Commission may penalize the utility for non-compliance with any of the standards set forth in this general order and consistent with the Public Utilities Code. Failure to comply with the restoration requirements set forth in Standard 12 creates a prima facie case of a violation of this general order. In such cases, the Commission will impose penalties unless the utility is able to demonstrate affirmatively that (1) it could not have fulfilled the requirements of Standard 12 with additional personnel or improved system maintenance and; (2) that it has complied with all orders, rules and law setting forth standards for maintenance and repair of relevant facilities. The minimum penalty for failure to comply with Standard 12 shall be equal to the number of customer-hours, which exceeds the standards set forth in Standard 12 multiplied by $10.

B. Standard 4.D. Call Center Standards

The utility shall adhere to the following standards applicable to its call center during or in anticipation of emergency situations:

a. Achieve an average queue wait of less than 40 seconds, and busy signal occurrence of less than 3% during outages.

b. Explore mutual assistance opportunities with other utilities and assure backup assistance from vendors.

c. Provide backup call center employees with adequate orientation to utility's service area and customers. All call center employees, including regular, backup and emergency must be familiar with city names and locations, local landmarks, and streets in affected areas.

d. Develop a phone system that would either (1) allow the customer to choose an alternative from a menu that would provide their service areas restoration schedule, or (2) allow the customer to leave a message with their specific concerns and outage information, that would call them back with either a personal (live) or recorded estimate of restoration time for their service area.

i. The return call would be made within one hour of leaving message.

ii. If a restoration estimate is not available within one hour, (1) a call to the customer letting them know the message was received and information will be provided as available will be made and (2) when restoration information is available; another call will be made to the customer informing them of the estimate.

e. Train customer service representatives to enable them to understand and identify potential service and safety problems.