3. Procedural Issues
The first prehearing conference in this matter was held on February 27, 2004. TURN timely filed its NOI on March 29, 2004. In its NOI, TURN asserted financial hardship.
Section 1802(b) (1) defines a customer as:
(A) A participant representing consumers, customers, or subscribers of any electrical, gas, telephone, telegraph, or water corporation that is subject to the jurisdiction of the commission.
(B) A representative authorized by a customer.
(C) A representative of a group or organization authorized pursuant to its articles of incorporation or bylaws to represent the interests of residential customers, or to represent small commercial customers who receive bundled electric service from an electric corporation.
In this case, TURN is a customer as defined in § 1802 (b)(1)C) because it is authorized pursuant to its bylaws to represent the interests of consumers, a portion of whom are residential customers.
On April 15, 2004, Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) O'Donnell ruled that TURN is a customer pursuant to § 1802(b)(1)(C), and meets the financial hardship condition pursuant to § 1802(g). TURN filed its request for compensation on January 20, 2006, within 60 days of D.05-11-026 being issued.2 In view of the above, we find TURN has satisfied all the procedural requirements necessary to make its request for compensation.
2 No party opposes the request.
