Washington Administrative Code › Title 480 - Utilities and Transportation Commission › Chapter 480-07 - Procedural rules › Part III - ADJUDICATIVE PROCEEDINGS › Subpart B - General Rate Proceedings › Section 480-07-510 - General rate proceeding filings- Electric, natural gas, pipeline, and Class A telecommunications companies

Current through Register Vol. 24-14, July 15, 2024
General rate proceeding filings by electric, natural gas,
					 pipeline, and Class A telecommunications companies as defined in WAC
					 480-120-034
					 must include the information described in this section. The company and all
					 parties to an adjudication in a general rate proceeding must file all required
					 documents in electronic form consistent with the requirements in WAC
					 480-07-140
					 and by the next business day must file five paper copies of all testimony and
					 exhibits unless the commission establishes a different number. If an exhibit is
					 a database, spreadsheet, or model, the paper copy of that exhibit may simply
					 reference or describe its contents if printing the entirety of the database,
					 spreadsheet, or model would result in a document exceeding five pages and would
					 render the data, spreadsheet cells, or model unusable. The party, however, must
					 submit a complete electronic version of the database, spreadsheet, or model,
					 with all information, formulae, and functionality intact, as part of the
					 party's electronic filing.
(1)
Testimony and exhibits.
The company's initial filing and any
				  supplemental filings the commission authorizes must include all testimony and
				  exhibits the company intends to present as its direct case. The company must
				  serve a copy of the initial filing on the public counsel unit of the Washington
				  state attorney general's office at the time the company makes the filing with
				  the commission if the proceeding is the type in which public counsel generally
				  appears or has appeared in the past. The filing must include a
				  results-of-operations statement showing test year actual results and any
				  restating and pro forma adjustments in columnar format that support the
				  company's general rate request. The company must identify each restating and
				  pro forma adjustment and the effect of that adjustment on the company's
				  operations and revenue requirement. The testimony must include a written
				  description of each proposed restating and pro forma adjustment describing the
				  reason, theory, and calculation of the adjustment.
(2)
Tariff sheets.
The company's
				  initial filing must include the company's proposed new or revised tariff sheets
				  in legislative format (i.e., with strike-through to indicate the material to be
				  deleted or replaced and underlining to indicate the material to be inserted)
				  consistent with the requirements in WAC
				  480-80-105,
				  as well as copies of any tariff sheets that are referenced in the new or
				  amended tariff sheets.
(3)
Detailed support for proposals.
(a)
General
. The company
				  must include in its initial testimony and exhibits, including those addressing
				  accounting adjustments, sufficient detail, calculations, information, and
				  descriptions necessary to meet its burden of proof. Any party responding to the
				  company's proposal also must include in that party's testimony and exhibits
				  sufficient detail, calculations, information, and descriptions necessary to
				  support its filed case.
(b)
Capital structure and rate of return
. The company must include
				  in testimony and exhibits a detailed description of the development of any
				  capital structure and rate of return proposals. Any other party that files
				  testimony or exhibits that propose revisions to the company's current capital
				  structure or authorized rate of return also must provide similar detailed
				  information in testimony and exhibits supporting its proposal.
(c)
Restating and pro forma
				  adjustments
. Each party that proposes restating or pro forma
				  adjustments must include in its testimony and exhibits a detailed portrayal of
				  the restating and pro forma adjustments the party uses to support its proposal
				  or position. That portrayal must specify all relevant assumptions and include
				  specific references to charts of accounts, financial reports, studies, and all
				  similar records on which the party relies. Testimony and exhibits must include
				  support for, and calculations showing, the derivation of each input number used
				  in the detailed portrayal, as well as the derivation of all interstate and
				  multiservice allocation factors.
(i)
				  Restating adjustments adjust the booked operating results for any defects or
				  infirmities in actual recorded results of operations that can distort test
				  period earnings. Restating adjustments are also used to adjust from an
				  as-recorded basis to a basis that the commission accepts for determining rates.
				  Restating adjustments must be calculated based on the unadjusted test year
				  operating results, not on another party's adjustments. The commission may
				  refuse to consider any adjustment that is not calculated consistent with this
				  requirement. Nonexclusive examples of restating adjustments are adjustments
				  that:
(A) Remove prior period
				  amounts;
(B) Eliminate
				  below-the-line items that were recorded as operating expenses in
				  error;
(C) Adjust from book
				  estimates to actual amounts;
(D)
				  Annualize ongoing costs that the company began to incur part way through the
				  test year;
(E) Normalize weather or
				  hydro conditions; or
(F) Eliminate
				  or normalize extraordinary items recorded during the test period.
(ii) Pro forma adjustments give
				  effect for the test period to all known and measurable changes that are not
				  offset by other factors. The company and any other party filing testimony and
				  exhibits proposing pro forma adjustments must identify dollar values and
				  underlying reasons for each proposed pro forma adjustment. Pro forma
				  adjustments must be calculated based on the restated operating results. Pro
				  forma fixed and variable power costs, net of power sales, may be calculated
				  directly based either on test year normalized demand and energy load, or on the
				  future rate year demand and energy load factored back to test year loads.
(iii) If a party proposes to
				  calculate an adjustment in a manner different than the method the commission
				  most recently accepted or authorized for the company, the party must also
				  include in testimony and exhibits the rationale for, and documents that
				  demonstrate, how that adjustment would be calculated under the methodology
				  previously accepted by the commission and must explain the reason for the
				  proposed change. Commission approval of a settlement does not constitute
				  commission acceptance of any underlying methodology unless the commission so
				  states in the order approving the settlement.
(d)
Revenue sources
. The
				  company must include in testimony and exhibits a detailed portrayal of revenue
				  from regulated sources, by source, during the test year and the changes that
				  would result in those revenues if the commission approves the company's
				  request, including an explanation of how the resulting changes were
				  derived.
(e)
Achievement of
				  rate of return
. The company must demonstrate in testimony and exhibits
				  why the company has not achieved its authorized rate of return and what actions
				  the company has taken prior to and during the test year to improve its earnings
				  in addition to its request for increased rates. If the company has not taken
				  any such actions, the company must explain why it has not.
(f)
Rate base and results of
				  operations
. The company's testimony and exhibits must include a
				  representation of the company's actual rate base and results of operations
				  during the test period, calculated in the same manner the commission used to
				  calculate the revenue requirement in the final order in the company's most
				  recent general rate proceeding.
(g)
Affiliate and subsidiary transactions
. The company's testimony
				  and exhibits must supplement, as necessary, the annual affiliate and subsidiary
				  transaction reports required in rules governing reporting for the applicable
				  industry to include all such transactions during the test period. The company
				  must identify all affiliate and subsidiary transactions that materially affect
				  the proposed rates. The company must support the allocation method the company
				  used to distribute common costs between regulated and nonregulated affiliated
				  entities and the dollar amount of those costs.
(h)
Electronic documents and
				  confidentiality
. Electronic files must be fully functional and include
				  all formulas and linked spreadsheet files. Electronic files that support
				  exhibits must use logical file paths, as necessary, by witness and must use
				  identifying file names consistent with the naming requirements in WAC
				  480-07-140.
				  A party may file a document with locked, hidden, or password protected cells
				  only if such restricted access is necessary to protect the information within
				  the cells that is not subject to public disclosure. The party must identify
				  each locked, hidden, or password protected cell and must designate such cells,
				  as well as any other information the party contends is confidential under
				  RCW
				  80.04.095 or otherwise protected from public
				  disclosure, in compliance with the requirements in WAC
				  480-07-160
				  and any applicable protective order. The party must make such information
				  accessible to all persons who have signed the protective order or are otherwise
				  entitled to access the information including, but not necessarily limited to,
				  commission staff and public counsel. Redacted versions of models or
				  spreadsheets that contain information that is designated as confidential or
				  highly confidential or otherwise protected from public disclosure must be in
				  .pdf format (using Adobe Acrobat or comparable software) and must mask the
				  information protected from public disclosure as required in WAC
				  480-07-160.
(i)
Referenced documents.
If
				  a party's testimony or exhibits refer to a document including, but not limited
				  to, a report, study, analysis, survey, article, or court or agency decision,
				  the party's testimony and exhibits must include that document except as
				  provided below:
(i) A party may include an
				  official citation or internet Uniform Resource Locator (URL) to a commission
				  order or to a court opinion or other state or federal agency decision, rather
				  than the document itself, if that decision is reported in a generally accepted
				  publication (e.g., Washington Reports Second (Wn.2d), Public Utility Reports
				  (P.U.R.), etc.) or if the document is readily available on the web site of the
				  agency that entered that decision;
(ii) A party may include only the relevant
				  excerpts of a voluminous document if the party also provides a publicly
				  accessible internet URL to the entire document or describes the omitted
				  portions of the document and their content and makes those portions available
				  to the other parties and the commission upon request; and
(iii) A party is not required to file or
				  distribute materials subject to third-party copyright protection but must
				  describe those materials and their content and make them available for
				  inspection upon request by the parties and the commission.