Decision 97-10-086 October 30, 1997
BEFORE THE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
Order Instituting Rulemaking on the Commission's Proposed Policies Governing Restructuring California's Electric Services Industry and Reforming Regulation. |
Rulemaking 94-04-031
|
|
Order Instituting Investigation on the Commission's Proposed Policies Governing Restructuring California's Electric Services Industry and Reforming Regulation. |
Investigation 94-04-032
|
OPINION REGARDING THE LOAD PROFILING
WORKSHOP REPORT AND ITS SUPPLEMENTS
In Decision (D.) 97-05-040, the Commission authorized the use of load profiles for direct access, in lieu of requiring meters capable of providing hourly data, for customers with a maximum demand of less than 20 kilowatts (kW). The decision also left open the issue of whether load profiles should be permitted for customers with a maximum demand of 20 to 50 kW. D.97-05-040 ordered that a workshop be held to address these issues.
Today's decision approves the use of the interim load profiling approach proposed by Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), San Diego Gas & Electric Company (SDG&E), and Southern California Edison Company (Edison). This approach is to remain in effect until July1, 1998, when these three utilities will be required to use dynamic load profiles for most eligible load profile customer rate schedules.
The decision also adopts the interim blanket exemption proposal of PG&E and SDG&E. This permits customers with a maximum demand of 20 to 50 kW to participate in direct access through the use of load profiles until September30, 1998, unless further extended by the Commission. These profiles shall be available for use no later than January1, 1998. Today's decision defers to a future decision the question of whether or not the utility distribution company (UDC) must be the only provider of the metering and meter services to such customers during 1998.
The decision also recognizes that there are a number of other load profiling issues which need to be addressed in 1998. These outstanding issues include: who can create and design load profiles; to what extent should segmentation be allowed; should the inconsistencies in determining who is eligible for load profiles be resolved; should additional metering at certain transmission and distribution points be required; and what type of monitoring data should be retained so as to assess the impact of the metering requirement on load profile customers. These issues shall be explored in further workshops, and if needed, evidentiary hearings will be held to resolve these issues.
In D.97-05-040, the Commission ordered the investor-owned electrical corporations to hold a workshop with other interested parties to develop statistical load profile methodologies.1 We noted the following:
"The load profile will be used by the scheduling coordinator or marketer to determine the customer's hourly consumption. The load profile will also be used by the ISO [independent system operator] to determine the generation the scheduling coordinator must provide....
"We will allow residential customers, small and medium size commercial and agricultural customers, and other customers, whose accounts have a maximum demand of less than 20 kW to engage in direct access transactions through use of statistical load profiles. The ability to use statistical load profiles to estimate the hourly consumption of small accounts, instead of requiring hourly interval meters for all direct access contracts, will facilitate the aggregation of small accounts and small customers." (D.97-05-040, p. 40, fn. omitted.)
A pre-workshop meeting was held on May 23, 1997, to identify the workshop issues and parties that were interested in presenting proposals at the workshop. The workshop was held on June5, 1997. At the workshop, the UDCs presented a proposal for developing and using load profiles beginning on January1, 1998. Thirteen other parties also presented proposals at the workshop. Those proposals were made available to other parties on the direct access implementation web site of the Office of Ratepayer Advocates (ORA).2 A member of the Board of Governors of the Independent System Operator (ISO) was also invited to address the workshop participants on how statistical load profiles would impact the ISO and the power exchange (PX). The "Report On June5, 1997 Direct Access Workshop On Load Profiling" (Workshop Report) was prepared by PG&E, SDG&E, and Edison and filed with the Commission on June16, 1997.
During the June 5, 1997 workshop, PG&E, SDG&E, and Edison agreed to make load profile data available for current rate categories on August1, 1997. (Workshop Report, p. 12.) In addition, the attendees at the workshop agreed to meet again to discuss the issue of whether customers whose peak demand falls between 20 to 50 kW should be exempt from the direct access metering requirement. (Workshop Report, pp. 27-28.)3
A subsequent meeting was held July 16, 1997 to discuss whether an exemption from the metering requirement should apply to customers with a maximum demand of 20 to 50 kW. The UDCs filed the "Supplement To The Report On The June5, 1997 Direct Access Workshop On Load Profiling: Eligibility Issues" (Eligibility Supplement) on July25, 1997. The Eligibility Supplement addresses what should be done with customers who fall in the 20 to 50 kW range. Comments to the Eligibility Supplement were filed by several of the parties on August 8, 1997.
On August 11, 1997, Edison filed a motion to accept its comments to the Eligibility Supplement one day out of time. Its comments were attached to the motion. According to the motion, Edison's comments were ready to be filed on August8, but due to traffic problems, the comments were not timely submitted to the Commission's Los Angeles office. No one has objected to Edison's motion. We will grant Edison's motion and direct the Docket Office to file Edison's comments to the Eligibility Supplement as if it was filed on August11.
On August 1, 1997, the UDCs filed the "Supplement To The Report On The June5, 1997 Load Profiling Workshop: Pro Forma Load Profiles" (Profiles Supplement). The Profiles Supplement provided notice that the load profile data for current rate categories were being made available to interested parties, and that the data files were being posted on ORA's web site. The Profiles Supplement also discussed the content and format of the data files that were released.
III. Load Profiling Workshop Report And Supplements
The load profiling workshop had several objectives. In addition to developing statistical load profile methodologies, the workshop addressed a process for updating and revising statistical load profiles, ways in which load profiles can be made more accurate, and whether load profiles should be developed for certain kinds of customers whose maximum demand is greater than or equal to 20 kW but less than 50 kW.
D.97-05-040 permits customers with maximum demands of less than 20 kW to participate in direct access through load profiling. The UDCs proposed at the workshop that the Commission adopt the UDCs' approach for developing and implementing load profiles as an interim measure. The UDCs propose to create load profiles in existing rate categories that are based on daily load shapes. The load shapes would be derived from the UDCs' existing systems, procedures, load research meters, and samples. The UDCs propose that the 20 kW threshold be determined using existing rate schedule breakpoints. When existing rate breakpoints are not aligned with the 20 kW threshold, in most cases, the UDCs propose to screen the 1996 billing data for demand of less than 20 kW.
The Workshop Report states that this approach builds on proven techniques borrowed from current ratemaking practices, and that the implementation of this proposal is straightforward, cost-effective, and achievable by January1, 1998.
The UDCs' proposal calls for a single load profile to be used for all customers in a rate category, regardless of whether the customer takes service from the UDC or a retailer. Thus, the UDCs would create load profiles for the existing rate categories, and provide this information to all retailers. If a customer chooses another retailer, then the same load profile would still apply to this customer.
The Workshop Report indicates that some of the workshop participants disagree with various aspects of the UDCs' proposal. They believe that the Commission should direct the UDCs to modify their proposed implementation of load profiling by January1, 1998, or as soon as practical thereafter.
1 We refer to these electrical corporations in this decision as the utility distribution companies or UDCs.
2 The web site address is: http://162.15.5.2/.
3 D.97-05-040 directed that the workshop address whether load profiles should be developed for customers whose maximum demand is equal to or greater than 20 kW but less than 50 kW.
This Web page was produced using a Beta version of HTML Transit 3.0