Report 2022-115 Recommendation 8 Responses

Report 2022-115: Electricity and Natural Gas Rates: The California Public Utilities Commission and Cal Advocates Can Better Ensure That Rate Increases Are Necessary (Release Date: August 2023)

Recommendation #8 To: Public Advocates Office

To ensure the appropriateness of the activities that utilities include in their cost recovery applications and to reduce the risk of utilities' attempting recovery of costs for work they did not complete, Cal Advocates should develop a process by the beginning of February 2024 to gain additional assurance that utilities actually performed the work claimed. This process should include the following steps:

Evaluate available reports and the work completed by other CPUC divisions and by other agencies to determine whether further verification of a utility's work is necessary.

Obtain additional information from utilities to verify completion of the work if it determines that further verification is necessary. For example, Cal Advocates could require utilities to provide photographs of work completed for a selection of costs.

Leverage the audit work that the CPUC performs to avoid duplication of effort.

60-Day Agency Response

The Public Advocates Office currently makes efforts to verify whether work is performed specifically where a utility is requesting additional ratepayer funds for work that was previously authorized by the CPUC. Moreover, the CPUC is currently performing this work as part of its compliance functions. Therefore, an expansion of our currently efforts may be dependent on obtaining more resources. We will strive to complete this process by the beginning of February 2024. However, given our resources and current and anticipated workload, we may need to look to the end of September 2024.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2022-115

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.