E. Comments of Draft Decision
Rule 77.7(f)(9) of the Commission's Rules of Practice and Procedure provides in relevant part that:
"...the Commission may reduce or waive the period for public review and comment under this rule...for a decision where the Commission determines, on the motion of a party or on its own motion, that public necessity requires reduction or waiver of the 30-day period for public review and comment. For purposes of this subsection, "public necessity" refers to circumstances in which the public interest in the Commission adopting a decision before expiration f the 30-day review and comment period clearly outweighs the public interest in having the full 30-day period for review and comment. "Public necessity" includes, without limitation, circumstances where failure to adopt a decision before expiration of the 30-day review and comment period...would cause significant harm to public health or welfare. When acting pursuant to this section, the Commission will provide such reduced period for public review and comment as is consistent with the public necessity requiring reduction or waiver."
We balance the public interest in quickly addressing modifications to the OBMC program due to the severe electric shortage and expectations of rolling outages this summer against the public interest in having the full 30-day comment cycle on the proposed modifications. We conclude that the former outweighs the latter. We must respond quickly in order to provide some certainty in the upcoming months, and find that a reduced public review and comment period balances the need for input with the need for timely action before Summer 2001.
On May 18, 2001, the draft decision of Assigned Commissioner and Presiding Officer Wood on this matter was mailed to parties in accordance with Section 311(g) of the Public Utilities Code and Rule 77.7 of the Commission's Rules of Practice and Procedure. Comments were filed on _________.
Findings of Fact
1. Petitions to modify the OBMC program set forth in D.01-04-006 were filed by UPI, CIU, CSI and TAMCO, and the California Industrial Gas Companies.
2. Notice of UPI's petition appeared in the Commission's Daily Calendar on April 18, 2001.
3. CLECA, UC/USC, the ISO, PG&E, SCE, and SDG&E filed responses to the petition of UPI.
4. Notice of the CSI and TAMCO petition appeared in the Commission's Daily Calendar on May 7, 2001.
5. Notice of the CIU and California Industrial Users Group petitions appeared in the Commission's Daily Calendar on May 8, 2001.
6. As of May 18, 2001 no filed responses have been filed to the CSI and TAMCO, CIU, or California Industrial Users Group petitions.
7. Although the petitions being considered by this order are not identical, they are similar in that each petition seeks to expand the OBMC program to permit customers participating in a capacity interruptible program to also participate in the OBMC program.
8. UPI seeks to modify D.01-04-006 so that a customer may participate in both the OBMC program and the ISO DRP.
9. The ISO's DRP is a demand reduction incentive program.
10. The OBMC program is an emergency load-shedding program.
11. The DRP baseline is based on the average consumption for a given hour from the 10 prior days excluding DRP curtailments and days with rotating outages (OBMC days).
12. The OBMC baseline is based on the average consumption for a given hour from the 10 prior days excluding only OBMC days.
13. The OBMC program structure precludes OBMC customers from receiving any payment.
14. It is the ISO's intent to pay loads for a DRP curtailment even if they are impacted at the same time by a rotating outage.
15. The benefits of the OBMC program include maximizing partial load curtailments by participating customers during every rotating outage period, and protecting large customers against significant harm and reducing the threat to public health and safety during rotating outages.
16. The utilities' approved tariffs state that the OBMC operates when the ISO requires firm load reductions in the utilities' service territory.
17. Changes in customer load patterns were taken into consideration when we established the OBMC program
18. Section 2.4.9 of Attachment A to the decision prohibits OBMC program participants from also participating in capacity interruptible programs.
19. The utility capacity interruptible programs rely on a customer selected firm service level.
1. D.01-04-006 should be modified to clarify that a customer's participation in rotating outages of the OBMC program is limited to the territory of the utility from which the customer obtains service.
2. D.01-04-006 should be modified to permit OBMC program participants to also participate in utility operated capacity interruptible programs.
3. The petitions of UPI, CIU, CSI and TAMCO, and California Industrial Gas Companies should be approved to the extent provided for in the following order.
4. The period for public review and comment on the draft decision should be reduced, pursuant to Rule 77.7(F)(9), as we balance the need to act quickly to modify the OBMC program in advance of this summer against the public interest in having a full 30-day public review and comment period.
5. Because of the public interest in avoiding rotating outages in the summer of 2001, the following order should be effective immediately.
IT IS ORDERED that:
1. The Optional Binding Mandatory Curtailment (OBMC) program criteria set forth in Attachment A of Decision (D.) 01-04-006 shall clarify that a customer's participation in the OBMC program for rotating outages shall be limited to the territory of the utility from which the customer obtains service. Section 2.4.2 of that document shall be revised as follows, and as detailed in Attachment A to this order.
"2.4.2 The OBMC program operates only when firm load reductions are required (i.e., concurrent with rotating outages) by the customer's electric distribution utility."
2. D.01-04-006 shall be modified to permit OBMC program participants to participate in a utility operated capacity interruptible program as long as that program requires the reduction of load to a pre-established firm service level. Accordingly Section 2.4.9 of Attachment A to D.01-04-006 shall be modified and Section 2.4.10 and 2.4.11 shall be added to the Attachment as set forth below. The revised elements of the OBMC program are attached to this order as Attachment A.
"2.4.9 OBMC participants may participate in a utility operated capacity interruptible program as long as that program requires the reduction of load to a pre-established firm service level (FSL).
2.4.9.1 Acceptable interruptible programs include but are not limited to the BIP, SCE's I-6, PG&E's E-20 non-firm, and SDG&E's AV-1 and AV-2.
2.4.9.2 If a customer participates in both a capacity interruptible program and the OBMC program, the required OBMC reduction shall be applied to the customer's FSL. For example, a customer with a FSL of 8 MW and a 10 day baseline of 10 MW that is called for a 10% OBMC reduction would be required to reduce load to 7 MW.
2.4.9.3 Only load reductions below the customer's interruptible FSL are counted toward compliance with the OBMC.
2.4.10 OBMC participants may participate in the VDRP program, but shall not be paid for any load reductions occurring during an OBMC call.
2.4.11 OBMC participants shall not participate in the ISO's DRP or in a utility program that aggregates load for the ISO's DRP."
3. Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Southern California Edison Company, and San Diego Gas & Electric Company shall file advice letters to revise their respective tariffs to incorporate the OBMC program changes being authorized by the order within five days after the effective date of this order.
4. Rulemaking 00-10-002 shall remain open to address the second phase of this rulemaking proceeding which includes the consideration of interruptible programs and curtailment priorities for the Summer of 2002, and any other issue or issues identified by the Commission, Assigned Commissioner and Presiding Officer, or Administrative Law Judge.
This order is effective today.
Dated , at San Francisco, California.
ATTACHMENT A
Page 1
CHANGES TO CURRENT INTERRUPTIBLE PROGRAMS,
NEW INTERRUPTIBLE PROGRAMS,
AND ROTATING OUTAGE PROGRAMS
May 24, 2001
R.00-10-002
May 24, 2001
2.4 Optional Binding Mandatory Curtailment Program
Elements of Optional Binding Mandatory Curtailment (OBMC) Program.
2.4.1 The OBMC program exempts participants from rotating outages if they can reduce the load on their entire circuit by the required amount for the entire duration of every rotating outage.
2.4.2 The OBMC program operates only when firm load reductions are required (i.e., concurrent with rotating outages) by the customer's electric distribution utility.
2.4.3 The baseline used to determine if the required load reduction has been obtained will be the average load of the immediate past 10 similar days during the period of the interruption. Similar days are either business days or weekend days and holidays. The 10 similar days will exclude days when the OBMC program operated and paid load reductions.
2.4.4 Load reductions will be requested in increments of 5%.
2.4.5 Participants must have the ability to reduce circuit load by 15%. The baseline used to determine if the 15% reduction can be met is the prior year's, same month, average peak period usage, adjusted for major changes in facilities. However, the customer must be able to produce at least a 10% load reduction based on the criteria in 2.4.3.
2.4.6 UDCs are required to facilitate circuit aggregation when requested by customer.
ATTACHMENT A
Page 2
2.4.7 The failure to reduce load as required will result in penalties equal to $6/kWh for all excess energy. If a participant fails to reduce circuit load to within 5% of the required amount on two occasions in any one year the customer's participation in the program shall be terminated and the customer shall be prohibited from participating in an OBMC program for 5 years.
2.4.8 Program participants shall pay the cost of any equipment required to participate in the program.
2.4.9 OBMC participants may participate in a utility operated capacity interruptible program as long as that program requires the reduction of load to a pre-established firm service level (FSL).
2.4.9.1 Acceptable interruptible programs include but are not limited to the BIP, SCE's I-6, PG&E's E-20 non-firm, and SDG&E's AV-1 and AV-2.
2.4.9.2 If a customer participates in both a capacity interruptible program and the OBMC program, the required OBMC reduction shall be applied to the customers FSL. For example, a customer with a FSL or 8 MW and a 10 day baseline of 10 MW that is called for a 10% OBMC reduction would be required to reduce load to 7 MW.
2.4.9.3 Only load reductions below the customer's interruptible FSL are counted toward compliance with the OBMC.
2.4.10 OBMC participants may participate in the VDRP program, but shall not be paid for any load reductions occurring during an OBMC call.
2.4.11 OBMC participants shall not participate in the ISO's DRP or in a utility program that aggregates load for the ISO's DRP.
(END OF ATTACHMENT A)
