Procedural Issues

Under § 1804(a)(1) and Rule 17.1(a)(1), customers who intend to seek an award of intervenor compensation must file the NOI before certain dates. In a proceeding in which a prehearing conference is held, the intervenor must file and serve its NOI between the date the proceeding was initiated until 30 days after the PHC is held. (Rule 17.1(a)(1).) According to the assigned Administrative Law Judge's (ALJ) March 22, 2005 Ruling, the Commission considered CEC's March 2, 2005 NOI filing as timely and we affirmed this finding in D.06-05-037.

Preliminary Procedural Requirements

In its NOI, CEC asserted financial hardship. On March 22, 2005, the ALJ found that CEC met the financial hardship condition pursuant to § 1802(g). We affirmed this finding in D.06-05-037.

Regarding customer status, Section 1802(b)(1) defines a "customer" as: A) a participant representing consumers, customers or subscribers of a utility; B) a representative who has been authorized by a customer; or C) a representative of a group or organization authorized pursuant to it articles of incorporation or bylaws to represent the interests of residential or small business customers. (Pub. Util. Code § 1802(b)(1)(A) through (C).) The ALJ's March 22 Ruling found CEC a customer pursuant to § 1802(b)(1) (C) and we affirmed this finding in D.06-05-037.

In view of the above, we find that CEC has satisfied all the procedural requirements necessary to make its request for compensation in this proceeding.

Timeliness of Compensation Requests

CEC filed its amended request for compensation on December 27, 2006. No party opposed the request. CEC made this amended filing because it failed to include all its hours in its first request for compensation filed on February 14, 2006. CEC's December 27, 2006 request also seeks compensation for additional hours spent on this proceeding after it filed its February 14, 2006 request. Although CEC filed its amended request beyond 60 days after the issuance of D.05-12-041, a request for compensation is timely if the intervenor files its request within 60 days of the issuance of a final decision in a proceeding. Because the Commission issued the last decision, D.07-04-007, in this proceeding on April 12, 2007, CEC's request falls within this 60 day period as required by Section 1804. Accordingly, we conclude that CEC's request for compensation is timely filed.