Opinion ID: 2374299
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Compliance Filing

Text: In the final stage of a ratemaking proceeding such as this one, the affected utility must file with the Commission new payment schedules for its various customers and classes revised to reflect any approved rate increase or change in the rate design. Copies of the revised rate schedules are made available by the Commission, once filed, to any party that requests them. The PSC, after a technical review of the new schedules, will approve them and specify a date upon which they will become effective. In this case, the PSC decision was announced on December 23, 1981. On December 29, PEPCO made the required filings and on December 30, the Commission issued Order Nos. 7457 and 7458, the first embodying the rate increase and changes in rate design announced in the December 23 decision and the second approving the compliance filing submitted by PEPCO. [7] WMATA and the People's Counsel claim that precedent and District of Columbia statutory law require further procedure to be followed prior to the approval of the revised rate schedules. [8] We disagree. The section of the Public Service Commission Law which applies to the revision of rate schedules is set out in D.C.Code § 43-901 (1981): All public utilities to which an order of the Commission applies shall make such changes in their schedules on file as may be necessary to make the same conform to said order, and no change shall thereafter be made by any public utility in any such rates, tolls, or charges, or in any joint rate or rates, without the approval of the Commission. Certified copies of all other orders of the Commission shall be delivered to the public utility affected thereby in like manner, and the same shall take effect within such reasonable time thereafter as the Commission shall prescribe. It is clear that this section does not envision an adjudication of the rights of parties but, rather, consistent with the position of PEPCO and the PSC, outlines a technical procedure between the Commission and the affected utility. It is, in other words, an administrative detail. Neither is there any precedent in this jurisdiction which requires that revised schedules be subjected to adjudicatory procedure after a final ratemaking order based on substantial evidence has set out specifically how rates and rate design will be changed. [9] An interpretation of the compliance filing stage of ratemaking as one appropriately left to the Commission's technical expertise and discretion does not seem unreasonable. Interested parties, in this case, for example, were able to air their objections to the proposed increases and changes in rate design during lengthy proceedings which produced a record of over ten thousand pages. These objections were fully considered by the PSC in reaching its decision. The terms of this decision are unambiguous. The decision spells out the overall rate increase and the changes in rate design. At this point in the proceedings, given subsequent approval by this court, the substantial rights of the parties have been fully adjudicated. The process of dividing the total amounts due from classes and customers into periodic payment schedules is uncomplicated by comparison and seems appropriate for abbreviated, technical treatment. In the absence of any statutory requirement or precedent for different treatment, and in the interests of keeping the administrative process as unburdened as possible by procedural complexity and of ensuring that rate and rate design changes deemed necessary are implemented as quickly as is feasible, we defer to the Commission's judgment as to how compliance filings should be reviewed prior to approval. We note additionally that the Commission has agreed that it may be appropriate to cease its unwritten practice with regard to compliance filings and, to that end, plans to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking to give all interested parties an opportunity to participate in the formulation of rules governing compliance filing requirements and procedures. Order No. 7505 at 15. On the basis of the foregoing analysis we affirm the Commission's orders in all respects. So ordered.