RE: ALERT regarding next OCC/Rule 22 meeting

"Hi All" --
 
You will recall that at the past couple of OCC meetings, we have discussed
my doing a survey of ESPs to gather information about the preparedness of
market participants to migrate to EDI for meter usage data.  Despite
discussion of the survey at last month's OCC meeting, I have only received
five responses to date.  They are tabulated in the attached document.  If I
receive additional responses by early afternoon on Monday, I will add them
to the compilation, then this would provide part of the input to Tuesday's
OCC/ Rule 22 meeting.
 
Regards, Jim Price, ORA, jep@cpuc.ca.gov <mailto:jep@cpuc.ca.gov>  
 
 
 -----Original Message-----
From: Roscow, Steve [mailto:scr@cpuc.ca.gov]
Sent: Friday, January 07, 2000 10:52 AM
To: 'tariff@ora.ca.gov'
Subject: ALERT regarding next OCC/Rule 22 meeting

Hi All-- 
Before I send out the agenda today (and I have gotten very few suggestions,
so I urge you all to respond to my prior request for items, or else I will
pick the topics and make you all discuss them using the Socratic method!!) I
wanted to mention one specific topic that you will all need to prepare ahead
of time to address.

The topic is compliance with the approaching EDI 867 deadline, and I want
each MDMA, and the customers of each MDMA, to arrive next Tuesday ready to
provide assurance that you are complying with Commission orders in this
area.  I am hearing vague suggestions that this is not currently the case,
and we need to straighten this out next Tuesday.   

Commission Decision 99-11-007 ORDERS that the EDI protocols for transferring
meter usage data information shall be used as the standard format for
transmitting all meter usage data starting no later than February 1, 2000.
Compliance with Commision orders is not optional for any participant in the
California marketplace.  To that end, MDMAs are supposed to have been
testing with the UDCs to ensure that this deadline will be met.  It is my
understanding from talking informally with folks, after the OCC meeting last
month, that this testing has not been completed, and may not be completed by
February 1st.  I really hope that this is not the case--there was nothing
"optional" about that February 1st deadline for EDI 867.  Frankly, when we
discussed this last month, the answers (and assurances) provided were
extremely vague, and we are not going to have a similar discussion next
week.  Rather than putting any parties on the spot in a public meeting, I
urge parties, in the context of their contractual relationships with the
responsible parties, to reach their own comfort levels PRIOR TO THE MEETING
that the February 1st deadline is going to be met by the parties responsible
for meeting it.

A related topic is the conversion to EDI 810 version 4010 and EDI 814--I
will be expecting to hear a progress report from the ESPs in attendance
regarding how that is going.  So be prepared to talk about that in detail
next Tuesday.

Steve Roscow 
CPUC Energy Division 
415-703-1189

867survy.doc