Background
In D.04-12-015, the Commission adopted, with two modifications, a multi-party Settlement Agreement (Settlement)1 resolving contested issues in Application (A.) 02-12-028, the 2004 cost of service proceeding of SDG&E.2 (D.04-12-015, p. 3.) SDG&E challenged the Commission's determinations with regard to SDG&E's share of SONGS costs.
Consistent with long-standing practice, the Commission addressed in Southern California Edison Company's (Edison and/or SCE) general rate case the SONGS-related expenses that Edison bills to SDG&E. (D.04-07-022, p. 60.) The Settlement in SDG&E's rate case included placeholder numbers and deferred the final SONGS costs to the Edison rate case. (Settlement, p. 6.) Regarding SDG&E's SONGS costs the Settlement stated:
Most of SDG&E's 2004 revenue requirement with respect to its 20% ownership in the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station ... is being litigated in Phase 1 of Southern California Edison Company's ... General Rate Case ... (A.02-05-004), which still is pending. The Joint Parties agree that SDG&E's level of electric production expense adopted in the final revenue requirement in this proceeding should reflect SDG&E's share of the actual SONGS costs the Commission authorizes in its decision in Phase 1 of the SCE GRC. (Settlement, p. 6, emphasis added.)
The Joint Parties also agreed to serve a late-filed exhibit after the conclusion of the Edison rate case "showing SDG&E's share of the SONGS costs the Commission authorizes in A.02-05-004." (Settlement, p. 6.) The Commission issued D.04-07-022 in Phase 1 of the Edison rate case on July 16, 2004. On September 3, 2004, SDG&E provided a "Follow-up Exhibit," marked as late-filed Exhibit (Ex.) No. 169 in this proceeding. SDG&E requested that its late exhibit be received into evidence. The exhibit was noted in D.04-12-015 (mimeo., p. 22).
In granting rehearing in D.05-05-018, the Commission recognized its record may have been insufficient to support the SONGS calculation in D.04-12-015 which relied on the results of operations model (Ex. 409 in the Edison rate case) and which was not included in the record for SDG&E's test year. The Commission concluded:
We will, therefore, grant limited rehearing in order to revisit this issue. Limited rehearing will give the parties an opportunity to help clarify and develop an adequate evidentiary record on the calculation of the SONGS costs. (D.05-05-018, p.5, emphasis added.)
In Ordering Paragraph 2, the Commission ruled:
Rehearing is limited to the calculation of SDG&E's share of SONGS costs, consistent with D.04-07-022, and to the development and clarification of the evidentiary record for the issues related to this calculation.
1 The Settlement can be found as Appendix H in D.04-12-015.
2 This is a consolidated proceeding that included the Application for Test Year 2004 Cost of Service, A.02-12-027, filed by Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas). There was a separate all-party settlement resolving issues in the SoCalGas application. (D.04-12-015, p. 2.)
