V. Comments on Draft Decision
The draft decision of the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) in this matter was mailed to the parties on April 23, 2001, in accordance with Section 311(g)(1) of the Public Utilities Code and Rule 77.7 of the Commission's rules.
1. SCGC filed its emergency petition to modify D.90-09-089 and D.97-11-070 on February 15, 2001.
2. SCGC requests that the 10 percent limit on monthly positive imbalances for noncore customers, contained in D.90-09-089, be waived during the winter balancing period, and that D.97-11-070 be modified by allowing noncore customers to use their previous months' accumulated positive imbalance volumes to meet the flowing supply requirement during the winter months.
3. D.90-09-089 adopted rules for gas procurement practices and transportation services, including the monthly balancing rules.
4. The monthly balancing rules allow noncore customers a tolerance band of 10 percent, and if the positive imbalances fall outside the 10 percent tolerance band at the end of a 30-day period, the utilities are required to purchase the noncore customers' overnominations.
5. D.97-11-070 modified D.90-09-089 by requiring noncore customers to deliver at least 50 percent of burn over a five-day period from November to March, subject to subsequent increases to 70 percent or 90 percent depending on the amount of total inventory.
6. Responses to SCGC's petition were filed by SoCalGas and TURN.
7. The monthly balancing rules are found in section 1-3 of SoCalGas' G-IMB tariff.
8. The winter balancing rules are contained in SoCalGas' Rule 30.
9. SoCalGas imposed a 70 percent daily balancing requirement on January 21, 2001, and instituted the 90 percent daily balancing on February 15, 2001.
10. TURN recommends that the Commission, on an interim basis, rebundle the costs of storage in the transportation rates for electric generators, and require SoCalGas to store gas on behalf of those customers.
11. The waiver of the 10 percent tolerance band for positive imbalances would allow noncore customers to overnominate as much gas as they want during the winter season.
12. Rule 47 of the Commission's Rules requires the petitioner to propose specific wording changes to carry out all requested modifications to the decision.
13. SCGC's petition would make permanent and extensive revisions to the gas storage and balancing rules that were adopted in D.90-09-089 and D.97-11-070.
14. The storage and balancing rules that SCGC seeks to modify were extensively debated.
15. SCGC's proposal allows noncore customers to avoid having to pay gas storage charges.
16. SoCalGas' noncore customers had advance notice of SoCalGas' storage inventory and the daily balancing requirements through the GasSelect electronic bulletin board.
17. The emergency alleged by SCGC in its petition does not exist.
18. The need to make an immediate change to the balancing rules is no longer necessary because the 2000-2001 winter heating season is now over.
Conclusions of Law
1. SCGC has failed to propose the specific wording changes needed to carry out all of its requested modifications to D.90-09-089 and to D.97-11-070.
2. The burden of proposing the wording changes to a decision is on the petitioner.
3. SCGC's proposal is contrary to the express goals of D.90-09-089 and D.97-11-070.
4. SCGC's petition seeks to revisit certain elements of the balancing rules which have previously been rejected by the Commission.
5. SCGC's petition to modify D.90-09-089 and D.97-11-070 should be denied.
6. Strategic gas storage issues are being addressed in R.01-03-023, pursuant to the March 30 ACR issued in that proceeding.
IT IS ORDERED that the emergency petition for modification of Decision (D.) 90-09-089 and D.97-11-070, which was filed by the Southern California Generation Coalition on February 15, 2001, is denied.
This order is effective today.
Dated , at San Francisco, California.
