1. On December 9, 1996, Enron Capital and Trade Resources, New Energy Ventures, Inc., the School Project for Utility Rate Reduction and the Regional Energy Management Coalition, The Utility Reform Network, Utility Consumers’ Action Network, and XENERGY, Inc. (collectively, Petitioners) filed a motion which was accepted into the electric restructuring docket. The Petitioners request the Commission issue an order instituting a rulemaking to establish standards of conduct governing relationships between California’s natural gas local distribution companies and electric utilities and their affiliated, unregulated marketing entities. They also request that the utilities be required to have their nonregulated activities conducted by their affiliate companies, rather than the utility itself, subject to the affiliate standards.
2. The affiliate transaction rules which presently apply to the energy utilities vary somewhat since they were developed in a number of dockets, largely as a result of corporate restructurings, but also as a result of competition being introduced into market segments like natural gas procurement.
3. Utility entities competing to provide energy services should face uniform rules so that no advantage or disadvantage accrues to a player simply because of differing regulations
4. Other California utility-affiliate transaction rules include nondiscrimination standards, disclosure and information standards, and separation standards.
5. Disclosure to affiliates of market information not provided to other market players would unfairly advantage affiliates in marketing their services.
6. Our present complaint procedure requires the utility to answer a complaint expeditiously (in 30 days) and formally.
7. Nothing in our rules prohibits a complainant and utility from attempting to resolve a complaint informally. Absent a successful conclusion to such an attempt, the new approaches our Consumer Services Division employs for addressing informal complaints provide sufficient Commission oversight of informal complaints to complainants who wish to take advantage of our resolution services.
8. The PU Code provides for penalties for violation of Commission orders.
9. As we foster competition in the energy marketplace, it is our responsibility to ensure that entry by the energy utilities and their affiliates into the unregulated market for energy products and services is on an equal footing.