V. Assignment of Proceeding

Geoffrey F. Brown is the Assigned Commissioner and Thomas R. Pulsifer is the assigned Administrative Law Judge in this proceeding.

Findings of Fact

1. In D.04-11-014, the Commission adopted eligibility criteria for existing POUs whose customers qualify for the limited CRS exemption applicable to transferred load as adopted in that order.

2. For customers of a POU to qualify for this exemption, the POU must have been serving 100 or more retail end use customers as of July 10, 2003.

3. In D.04-11-014, the Commission prescribed a process for POUs to be added to the CRS exemption eligibility list by filing a motion in this proceeding, to be ruled upon by the assigned ALJ.

4. Consistent with D.04-11-014, any ruling on the eligibility of any entity that makes such a motion was to require verification of eligibility.

5. In D.04-11-014, in defining "substantial operations" in terms of qualifying under the 100-customer criterion as of July 10, 2003, declined to add other criteria to this definition.

6. While customers taking a vacation generally still have a meter in place and receive a monthly bill, such is not the case with individual vessels that berth intermittently at the Port of Stockton. Instead, the meter is associated with the berth, not the individual vessel.

7. Under PG&E's tariffs, separately metered entities generally have separate accounts and are treated as separate customers.

Conclusions of Law

1. The processes set forth in this decision should be adopted as the basis for POUs to initiate requests to be added to the CRS exemption eligibility list pursuant to D.04-11-014.

2. In order to be consistent with D.04-11-014, POUs should file their request for exemption eligibility in the form of a motion rather than by informal request to the Commission's Energy Division.

3. The POU should not be required to disclose specific customer count data in seeking CRS exemption eligibility, but should be required to provide a sworn affidavit from a responsible representative of the POU attesting that the POU served at least 100 retail customers as of July 10, 2003.

4. A POU submitting an affidavit attesting to CRS exemption eligibility should remain subject to possible audit by the Commission's Energy Division, as warranted, to verify the assertions contained in the affidavit.

5. For purposes of qualifying under the 100-customer criterion under D.04-11-014, a POU should be permitted to count any retail customer that it served as of July 10, 2003, irrespective of the category of customer involved, including direct access customers.

6. Individual metered berths at the Port of Stockton should count as a single customer, but multiple vessels should not count as customers merely because they intermittently berth at a meter operated by the Port of Stockton.

7. Separately metered accounts should qualify as representing individual customers under the 100-customer criterion, even if the separately metered accounts may be owned by a single entity such as a franchisee.

ORDER

IT IS ORDERED that:

1. Publicly-owned utilities (POUs) seeking to be placed on the list of POUs whose customers are exempt from the payment of the Cost Responsibility Surcharges (CRS) shall file a motion in this docket pursuant to the processes adopted in this order. Such motions shall be filed within 10 business days following the effective date of this decision. As support for the motion, the POU shall include a sworn affidavit from a responsible officer or employee of the company, attesting that the POU was serving at least 100-retail customers as of July 10, 2003.

2. The Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) shall promptly issue a ruling either granting or denying the motions seeking to add POUs to the list eligible to apply for CRS exemption on behalf of their customers.

3. If a party believes that the ruling on exemption eligibility has misapplied the criteria to the facts presented, the party may file a motion for reconsideration of the ruling. Such motion must be filed no later than 10 business days of the ruling, and must set forth specific reasons supporting a claim of error, together with any relevant factual documentation. Motions for reconsideration filed pursuant to this process are subject to the standard Rule 45 procedures applicable to motions generally.

4. In attesting to the 100-customer requirement, the POU is authorized to count all retail customers served as of July 10, 2003, including Direct Access customers.

5. Vessels intermittently docking at the Port of Stockton shall not qualify as counting toward the 100-customer requirement, but individuals meters operated at the Port may qualify.

6. POUs submitting such motions shall make readily available to the Commission staff any supporting documentation that may be requested in the event that the staff determines to perform an audit to verify eligibility of the POU for the exemption. Any confidential data made available by the POU to Commission staff pursuant to such audit shall be subject to confidentiality protection pursuant to Pub. Util. Code § 583 and General Order 66-C.

This order is effective today.

Dated March 2, 2006, at San Francisco, California.

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