Findings of Fact

1. Bee Sweet acquired Mar River ranch, a citrus ranch of 125 acres, in December 2003. The ranch had a water supply system, including wells, pumps, controllers, a reservoir, and electrical panels. The ranch has two wells each with its own pump, electrical panel, and time clock to control use.

2. The pumps are wired so that they cannot be operated by hand; they can only be operated through programmable time clocks. Both pumps were programmed to shut down during peak times.

3. During the time periods at issue Bee Sweet chose to take service under SCE's Schedule Time-of-Use - Agricultural and Pumping, Super Off-Peak-Demand Metered (TOU-PA-SOP-1). TOU-PA-SOP-1 benefits customers who can shift load to the super-off-peak time period.

4. SCE's August 2004 bill for the period July 3, 2004 to August 4, 2004, showed charges for on-peak usage; the demand charges were $6,452.75.

5. The September 2004 bill showed total on-peak demand charges for August of $10,292.57.

6. SCE's bill in October for the billing period 9/3/04 to 10/2/04, showed on-peak usage for that billing period with demand charges of $6,040.64.

7. In early 2005 Bee Sweet authorized SCE to install the TMLC units and paid the installation fee of $5,077.50.

8. After the TMLC units were connected on SCE's equipment, Bee Sweet's electrician hooked up the TMLC units to Bee Sweet's pumps.

9. An SCE meter technician on or about October 2004 inspected the SCE meters at the ranch in connection with the 2004 on-peak usage charges. He verified that on-peak usage occurred. He found the meters to be working properly.

10. SCE's investigation revealed no distribution circuit events that correlated with the on-peak usage in 2004. The only circuit events found were two outages on April 17 and December 27, 2004, that were associated with inclement weather. Neither outage correlates with the on-peak usage dates and times. The substation which serves the Welch circuit was also reviewed for interruptions or abnormalities. Nothing unusual was found.

11. Bee Sweet's pumps, when operating in the on-peak period, usually ran for at least an hour during the on-peak period. Additionally, a majority of the on-peak usage resulted when the pumps were running prior to 1:00 p.m., failed to stop at 1:00 p.m., and ran into the on-peak period. On four occasions - July 27, 2004, August 31, 2004, July 29, 2005, and August 5, 2005 - the pumps ran continuously from before or around midnight and failed to stop at 1:00 p.m. On five occasions - August 6, 2004, August 13, 2004, October 1, 2004, July 13, 2005, and August 9, 2005 - the pumps ran for approximately two to five hours prior to 1:00 p.m., and again failed to stop at 1:00 p.m. Similarly, on August 2, 2004, one pump started at 4:57 p.m., just minutes before the on-peak period ended, and ran for approximately seven hours thereafter.

12. There is no persuasive evidence that electricity flowing through the meters caused the Alex-Tronix time clocks to fail.

13. There is no persuasive evidence that the sporadic failure to turn off the pumps prior to the on-peak schedule was the fault of SCE.

14. There is no persuasive evidence that SCE caused Bee Sweet's use of electricity during the on-peak periods.

Conclusions of Law

1. Complainant has failed to sustain its burden of proof.

2. The relief request should be denied.

ORDER

IT IS ORDERED that:

1. The relief requested in the complaint is denied.

2. Case 05-11-004 is closed.

This order is effective today.

Dated January 25, 2007, at San Francisco, California.

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