a) Yes, SoCalGas and SDG&E’s proposed residential fixed charge of approximately $10 per month are designed solely for the purpose of recovering fixed customer costs in a fixed customer charge. b) Yes, however, CARE customers currently receive a 20% discount that would continue to apply to the proposed customer charge, as well. c) See attached spreadsheet. d) Confirmed. The list of items which the proposed fixed charge is designed to recover is discussed on lines 1 through 5 of page 5 in Mr. Bonnett’s revised prepared direct testimony. e) The requested information is already provided in Table 5 of Mr. Bonnett’s revised prepared direct testimony. Additionally, the rate design models showing the calculation have already been provided. See “testimony tables” tab in the SCG RD model. f) It is unclear what is meant by “confirm the amount of change in the average monthly bill of the lowest usage residential customers.” Mr. Bonnett’s revised prepared direct testimony contains a table which shows the bill impact information of baseline-only customers. g) Confirmed. (To clarify, the SDG&E number is on Ms. Schmidt-Pines’ workpapers). h) Confirmed, based on the NCO only method without any replacement investments for old equipment removal. (To clarify, the SDG&E number is based on Ms. Schmidt-Pines‘ workpapers). The marginal customer costs based on NCO method with replacement investments (at historical replacement rates) are considerably higher than those based on NCO only method. i) The definition of the term minimum charge” as used in the question is not clear to SoCalGas and SDG&E. The fixed customer charge is intended to recover a reasonable portion of the fixed costs associated with providing a customer with access to SoCalGas’ or SDG&E’s gas delivery systems. The fixed customer charge reflects what a residential customer would pay when that customer’s gas consumption is zero. QUESTION 6:
(c) In reference to the above statements, please indicate the proportion of SoCalGas and SDG&E customers who live in newer energy efficient homes. Please provide the basis to support your response. (d) In reference to the above statements, please indicate the proportion of SoCalGas and SDG&E customers who live in cooler environments inland. Please provide the basis to support your response. (e) In reference to the statements, please indicate the proportion of SoCalGas and SDG&E customers who live in more temperate environments along the coast. (f) In reference to the above statements, do SoCalGas and SDG&E assert that intra-class subsidy currently exists? If so, then please provide the estimated intra-class cross subsidy with respect to both SoCalGas and SDG&E. RESPONSE 7: Mr. Bonnett’s testimony was intended to be a general statement regarding the potential inequities of a residential customer’s geographic location and age of their home. As an example, the two tables below show the 5-year history comparing annual heating degree days (HDDs) for the “Inland” vs “Coastal” service areas. HDDs drive the gas heating demand during cold days in winter months. Specifically, an HDD is the number of degrees that a day's average temperature is below 65oFahrenheit. Thus, the higher number of HDD the lower the average daily temperature. Year SCG Inland HDD SCG Coastal HDD Difference (%) 2010 2,800 1,877 49% 2011 3,030 1,950 55% 2012 2,376 1,719 38% 2013 2,548 1,545 65% 2014 1,939 992 95% Year SDG&E Inland HDD SDG&E Coastal HDD Difference (%) 2010 2,307 1,925 20% 2011 2,455 1,854 32% 2012 2,013 1,804 12% 2013 2,080 1,729 20% 2014 1,233 865 43%