3. Load Forecast Counting Conventions

As anticipated in D.04-01-050, the possibility that utilities would be required to file long-term plans in advance of a final decision on the details of resource adequacy has been realized. The schedule for completing the portion of resource adequacy addressed by the ALJ Ruling of February 13, 2004, and the workshops covering the period March 16 to May 26, 2004, does not permit the utilities to incorporate our final decision on these matters into their Plans. Thus, utilities must use interim assumptions to enable us to begin our review of their long-term Plans sooner.

It is not our purpose to pre-judge the results of the Workshop process or the ultimate decision of the Commission. Rather, we provide the following set of assumptions for use by the utilities' developing their Plans, with the understanding that our final judgment on these matters may differ. The utilities should use the following resource adequacy guidelines in preparing their long-term load forecasts as part of their Plans:

· Load forecasts are to follow the consensus portions of the load forecasting straw-model filed on April 9, 2004 in R.01-10-024;

· For non-consensus items, utilities should assume:

¬ They are responsible for existing bundled service customers, load growth for these customers, and all new customers resulting from economic growth in their service areas;

¬ Peak loads are further defined to be the maximum load of each of the utilities. Utilities may submit any information they have available regarding coincidence factors with the CAISO system peak;

¬ Peak demand is defined to include all losses from end-user meter to generator busbar; and

¬ All price-responsive demand and interruptible programs are counted as resources, and given credit consistent with resource counting conventions, not subtracted from load forecasts.