Under voluntary curtailment utilities need do no more than
provide curtailment tips to consumers, provided sufficient curtailment is being
achieved equitably between states and utilities. At the direction of the state,
utilities will provide individual consumers with curtailment targets. Utilities
will provide retrospective, current, and forthcoming billing period curtailment
target data to all consumers as directed by the state. Under mandatory
curtailment the following will apply:
(1) At a minimum, utilities will provide
retrospective, current, and forthcoming billing period curtailment target data
to any audited consumer and to any consumer who so requests.
(2) Utilities may elect to audit up to one
hundred percent of their customers, provided that each billing period minimum
audit level requirements are met. Unless adjusted by the state, the minimum
audit level will be at least one percent of residential consumers, five percent
of general use consumers, one hundred percent of major use consumers, and any
consumer whose previous billing period consumption exceeded the threshold
consumption level. Such consumers will continue to be audited until their
energy use falls below the threshold consumption level. Once their energy use
falls below that level, they will be audited again only if selected by
sample.
(3) For audit, new samples
will be drawn each month. The number of consumers exempted or excluded from
audit will not affect the sample size.
(4) Unless a utility is auditing one hundred
percent of its residential and general use consumers, all such consumers
selected for audit will be chosen on a random sample basis, except that the
following consumers will be excluded:
(a)
Consumers granted an exemption under this plan; and
(b) Consumers with an estimated power bill in
the current billing period.
Utilities may elect to exclude residential and general use
consumers with estimated base billing period data, if the state does not
require their inclusion in the pool of consumers subject to audit.
(5) Any existing
curtailment of load based on contractual provisions between an industrial
consumer and its utility does not count towards the consumer's required
curtailment obligation to the state, excepting where such curtailment
represents fifty percent of the consumer's base year consumption level. This
exemption may be suspended by the state under Stage 5 of mandatory
curtailment.
