On October 27, 2004, the California Electric Generation Facilities Standards Committee ("the Committee") adopted these Operation Standards in compliance with the requirements of Section 761.3 of the California Public Utilities Code, established by Senate Bill 39xx (Burton, Speier). The California Public Utilities Commission ("the Commission") is responsible for implementation and enforcement of these standards. By law, the Committee is composed of one member of the Commission, one board member of the California Independent System Operator ("the CAISO"), and a third member chosen by the first two.

The Relationship of the Operation Standards to Maintenance Standards Previously Adopted by the Committee

The first eleven standards (and associated guidelines) are similar to several of the Maintenance Standards adopted by the Committee in May 2003. These standards address areas that are common to both operation and maintenance, such as training, management, and problem resolution. Standards 12 through 28 are new standards specifically tailored to the operation of power plants.

Use of Terms Related to GAO Personnel

References within the Standards and Guidelines to "employees," "operators," "operations personnel," "personnel," "temporary workers," "management," or other staffing descriptions are not intended to require a GAO to follow any particular organizational structure, or to dictate whether work should be performed by the GAO's own employees or contractors. Rather, a GAO is free to organize its work force in the manner it deems most appropriate.

Whether or not it employs contractors, the GAO is solely responsible for complying with these Operation Standards. The GAO is required to take reasonable and prudent steps to assure that contract employees are held to equally stringent performance standards as GAO employees, and that contract employees receive comparable training and safety protections related to their duties. Some standards and guidelines specifically mention contractors or temporary workers and some do not. The GAO's duties regarding contractors and temporary workers, as discussed above, apply to all standards and guidelines when contractors or temporary workers are involved in compliance-related activities, whether or not such workers are specifically mentioned in relevant standards and guidelines.

Guidelines

In addition to the Operation Standards, the Committee adopts a set of recommended Guidelines for all but one standard. We intend these guidelines to assist GAOs in developing plans, procedures and training programs that comply with the Operation Standards, as well as to assist Commission staff in implementing the standards through audits or other implementation activities.

The Committee does not intend these guidelines to be enforceable. There may be reasonable ways of meeting a particular standard that do not follow every provision of the associated guidelines. On the other hand, the guidelines may not be an exhaustive list of the actions required by a standard, because at particular plants there may be special conditions not contemplated here.

GAOs should consider the guidelines in reviewing or reformulating their own policies, operating procedures, and implementation schedules, to ensure that the concerns raised by the guidelines are addressed, where relevant, at each power generation unit. We anticipate that that Commission staff will use the guidelines as indicators of the kinds of GAO activities that are sufficient to meet standards. Failure to meet guidelines under a particular standard may of course raise questions about the completeness of a GAO's program. Failure to meet a guideline, in combination with other evidence, may indicate a violation of the Standards. However, failure to meet a guideline should not be taken, per se, as a failure to meet the associated standard.

Finally, the Equipment and System Operating Standard (Number 28) has particularly extensive guidelines addressing 28 separate critical systems in operation at various power plants around the state. We recognize that not all of the systems are in operation at each generation unit (hydroelectric units will contain only a few of these systems). However, where the systems are in operation, they are critical to plant reliability and safety.

Implementation

The Commission has indicated that it will incorporate the Operation Standards into General Order (GO) 167, along with the Maintenance and Logbook Standards previously adopted by this Committee. Therefore, we assume and intend that the general implementation provisions of the GO will also apply to these Operation Standards. We are not adopting an implementation plan for the Operation Standards, because that is the Commission's role, not the Committee's. Comments have suggested that we address such topics as confidentiality and penalties, yet those are implementation issues that are already addressed in GO 167.

GO 167 states that these standards will not modify, delay or abrogate any deadline standard, rule or regulation imposed by other agencies. While we have not tried to identify or reference every applicable requirement, we do note that failure to follow certain requirements imposed by other agencies may threaten the safety and reliability of a power unit. Therefore, behavior that constitutes a violation of another agency's requirements may also constitute a violation of these operation standards.

Although the Committee's task is to adopt standards, not to implement them, we offer the following implementation recommendations to the Commission for consideration in its implementation proceeding. The Committee recommends that the Commission implement the standards in a way that provides GAOs considerable flexibility in meeting the standards while retaining accountability. Accordingly, the Committee recommends that the Commission require GAOs to file for each power generation unit an Operation Plan detailing how the generation owner meets (or plans to meet) the Operation Standards. The Committee recommends that this Operation Plan should include, at a minimum:

1) A brief Unit Plan including the expected years the plant will remain in operation, whether the plant is regarded as a baseload plant or peaking plant (or some intermediate designation), what level of availability the GAO intends for the plant, whether the plant will operate year-round or only seasonally, and whether the GAO views the plant as a long-term resource that requires continued maintenance and investment.

2) A general description and timetable of how the GAO meets or plans to meet the provisions of each Operation Standard at each unit (or identical groups of units), identifying by title (and location) and summarizing the various operating policies, procedures, training programs and routines the GAO has in place (or will put in place) to demonstrate compliance with the Operation Standards.

The Committee recommends that the Commission 1) require the Operation Plans to be updated appropriately, and 2) use the Operation Plans during audits of power generation units.

We request that the Commission insert appropriate implementation language into its general order to effectuate the recommendations in this section.