3. Procedural Issues
The first prehearing conference in this matter was held on March 25, 2004. Aglet timely filed its NOI on April 19, 2004. In its NOI, Aglet asserted financial hardship.
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. In this case, Aglet is a customer as defined in paragraph C because its members are small residential customers some of whom are served by SCE, and it is authorized pursuant to its bylaws to represent the interests of residential customers.
On May 20, 2004, Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Jeffrey P. O'Donnell ruled that Aglet is a customer pursuant to § 1802(b)(1)(C), and meets the financial hardship condition pursuant to § 1804(b)(1)) because it met this requirement in another proceeding within one year of the commencement of this proceeding (ALJ ruling dated April 9, 2003 in Application 02-11-017 et al.). Aglet filed its request for compensation on February 14, 2006, within 60 days of D.05-11-026 being issued.2
In view of the above, we affirm ALJ O'Donnell's ruling and find that Aglet has satisfied all the procedural requirements necessary to make its request for compensation.
2 No party opposes the request.
