The IOUs and the Commission's Energy Division provided clarification at the workshop of the differences between the numbers in the December 3, 2009 and December 29, 2009, informational filings and the numberes provided in the IOU's monthly Direct Access activity reports. The general consensus among parties at the workshop was that formal independent verification of the data submitted by the IOUs was not necessary, and that the time required to implement such verification process could unduly delay the reopening of Direct Access. The Commission already has the ability to verify the load data provided by the IOUs in case of a dispute.

The applicable new Direct Access load increase relating to each of the IOU service territories is set forth as follows:

The new load eligible for Direct Access service represents a relatively small portion of each of the utilities' portfolios, involving less than 10 million megawatt hours (MWh) of annual usage across the entire state. This amount is less than 6% of the entire load served, and is much less than the annual variation in electricity consumption across the state due to the weather and the economy.

The SB 695 cap limits any potential risk associated with reopening of Direct Access by eliminating uncertainty associated with load migration. The adopted phase-in schedule will provide enough lead time for the IOUs to account for small shifts in load and therey avoid unwarranted cost shifting and stranded load.