1849225 Formal Case No. 712, In the Matter of the Investigation into the Public Service Commission's Rules of Practice and Procedure
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PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
NOTICE OF FINAL RULEMAKING
FORMAL CASE NO. 712, IN THE MATTER OF THE INVESTIGATION INTO THE PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION’S RULES OF PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE
1. The Public Service Commission of the District of Columbia (Commission), pursuant to its authority under D.C. Official Code § 34-802 (2010 Repl.) hereby gives notice of its final rulemaking action taken on December 8, 2011, in Order No. 16638, amending chapter 1 of title 15 of the District of Columbia Municipal Regulations. This chapter governs the practice and procedure of the Commission. The Commission finalizes the following provisions, which were published in a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) on December 31, 2010,[1] on June 10, 2011,[2] and on September 23, 2011.[3] No revisions were made to the rules proposed in the September 2011 NOPR. The rules contained in this Notice of Final Rulemaking will become effective upon publication in the D.C. Register.
On January 31, 2011, the Office of the People’s Counsel (OPC) and Pepco filed comments in regards to the December 2010 NOPR; no reply comments were filed.[4] Pepco filed comments in regards to the June 2011 NOPR; there were no reply comments filed.[5] Pepco filed comments in regards to the September 2011 NOPR on October 24, 2011; no reply comments were filed.[6]
Chapter 1 (Public Service Commission Rules of Practice and Procedure) of title 15 of the DCMR is amended as follows:
Section 104 (Initial Pleadings), subsection 104.1(a) is amended to read as follows:
(a) The name, address, and e-mail address of petitioner, applicant, or complainant;
Section 110 (Appearances and Representation), subsection 110.6 is amended to read as follows:
110.6 Persons who appear in a representative capacity in any formal proceeding shall file a written notice of appearance with the Commission Secretary on the first occasion of appearance. The notice of appearance shall state the person’s name, local address, local telephone number, e-mail address, and for whom the appearance is made. The written notice shall be part of the record.
Section 114 (Signing and Verification of Pleadings), subsection 114.4 is amended to read as follows:
114.4 Any attorney for or representative of a party shall also sign the pleading, and show his or her address, telephone number, e-mail address, and Unified Bar Number, if applicable.
Section 115 (Service of Pleadings and Other Documents), subsection 115.5 is amended to read as follows:
115.5 Service of pleadings or any other documents shall be made by sending one (1) copy of the pleading to each party by:
(a) E-mail;
(b) First class mail; or
(c) Personal service.
Section 116 (Notice), subsection 116.4 is amended to read as follows:
116.4 Service of notice shall be made in person, by e-mail, or by first class mail.
Section 118 (Electronic Filing Procedures) is amended to read as follows:
118 ELECTRONIC FILING PROCEDURES
118.1 All filings shall be filed electronically, with the exception of the following:
(a) Filings containing confidential or personal information;
(b) Filings by individuals in consumer complaint cases; and
(c) Filings by individuals in proceedings other than consumer complaint cases.
118.2 Confidential filings shall be submitted in person or by mail; however, when a confidential filing is made, the corresponding public version shall be filed electronically on the same day.
118.3 All electronic filings shall be considered filed when the Commission has received the electronic submission, unless the electronic submission has been rejected under subsection 118.7.
118.4 For good cause shown, a party may submit a paper filing in lieu of an electronic filing. All paper filings shall comply with sections 113, 114, 115, and 116 of this chapter.
118.5 Filings may be submitted electronically twenty-four (24) hours a day, seven (7) days a week. If a filing is received outside of Commission business hours, it shall be docketed the next business day.
118.6 Parties shall receive from the Office of the Commission Secretary an electronic acknowledgment of their submission once file transmission is complete. The acknowledgment shall contain the name and size of the file, case number, party name, date, and the time the Commission’s server received the last byte of information.
118.7 After reviewing an electronic filing to ensure that it meets the Commission’s electronic filing requirements, the Office of the Commission Secretary shall send a notice of acceptance or a notice of rejection. The notice of acceptance shall provide the filing’s case number, item number, the date and time of receipt, and the official filing date. If the filing does not meet the Commission’s requirements, then the Office of the Commission Secretary shall send a notice of rejection explaining the reason(s) for rejection by the end of the next business day. A notice of rejection extends any applicable deadline through the end of the next business day.
118.8 To electronically file a document with the Commission, filers must complete and submit the electronic filing registration form to the Office of the Commission Secretary. If this form is approved, the Office of Commission Secretary will issue a user ID and password. When registering, a user must explicitly agree to the terms of the eDocket system Compliance Agreement.
Section 119 (Electronic Filing Formats and Document Verification) is amended to read as follows:
119 ELECTRONIC FILING FORMATS AND DOCUMENT VERIFICATION
119.1 Filings shall conform to the formatting rules set forth in section 113.
119.2 Parties shall submit all filings in text-searchable format converted directly from a word processing program to portable document format (PDF) with the optical character recognition (OCR) feature enabled.
119.3 Parties shall not submit files that are corrupted or contain inserted programs (for example, embedded macros, viruses, and other general file corruptions).
119.4 Parties shall not use auto-date features, which add the current date to the document whenever the file is opened.
119.5 Parties shall not submit files containing hyperlinks to external documents.
119.6 For purposes of electronic filing, the signature on the filing shall be the same as the owner of the user ID and password used to submit the filing. The signature requirement for electronic filings shall cover certificate of service signature requirements, and the signature requirements stated in subsections 104.1(e), 114.1, 114.2, 114.3, 114.4, and 114.5 of this chapter.
[1] 57 DCR 12635 (December 31, 2010).
[2] 58 DCR 4718 (June 10, 2011). The first NOPR was published on December 31, 2011. OPC and Pepco commented on that NOPR.
[3] 58 DCR 8243 (September 23, 2011).
[4] Formal Case No. 712, Comments of the Office of the People’s Counsel Regarding the Public Service Commission’s December 31, 2010 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“OPC Comments”), filed January 31, 2011; Comments of Potomac Electric Power Company in Response to Commission Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“Pepco Comments”), filed January 31, 2011.
[5] Formal Case No. 712, Comments of the Potomac Electric Power Company in Response to Commission Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“Pepco Comments”), filed July 11, 2011.
[6] Formal Case No. 712, Comments of Potomac Electric Power Company in Response to Commission Notice of Second Proposed Rulemaking (“Pepco September 2011 Comments”), filed October 24, 2011.
