Transferred Municipal Departing Load

Transferred Municipal Departing Load (TMDL) refers to customers who on or after December 20, 1995, replace their bundled or direct access electricity service from PG&E with electricity service from a Publicly Owned Utility (POU). A POU is any public entity that qualifies as a local publicly owned electric utility under Public Utilities Code section 9604, such as a municipal utility district or an irrigation district.

Additional information about TMDL can be found in Electric Rate Schedule E-TMDL (PDF, 178 KB).

• Since the California legislature enacted Assembly Bill 1890 in 1996, TMDL consumers have been obligated, with certain exceptions, to pay various departing load charges related to the costs of California’s electric industry restructuring.
• More recently, a series of decisions by the CPUC mandated that TMDL consumers also owe departing load charges related to the costs of power purchases by the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) during the energy crisis of 2001, as well as costs established by the PG&E bankruptcy decision, unless they meet certain requirements for exemptions.
• The legislature’s actions and the CPUC’s decisions are designed to ensure that such stranded costs, as well as other costs associated with electric restructuring and the energy crisis, are shared by all Californians on whose behalf those costs were incurred.
• The CPUC has determined that these charges are generally non-bypassable, meaning all customers located in PG&E’s service area share the obligation. However, the CPUC has granted exemptions from some departing load charges to TMDL consumers who meet certain requirements (see “Who is Exempt From Departing Load Charges”).

Customers who intend to take service from a POU must notify PG&E in writing at least 30 days before the discontinuation electric service from PG&E. The customer’s notice must include:

• the estimated date on which electric service will be reduced or discontinued,
• a description of the load that will reduced or discontinued,
• the service address and PG&E service ID number assigned to this load,
• the name of the POU from which the customer will take service,
• the customer's preferred basis for calculating departing load charges. The customer may elect to have charges based on:
  • the last 12 months usage
  • the average 12 month usage, as measured over the last 36 months
  • actual usage based on future meter data

Within 20 days of receipt of the customer’s notice, PG&E will send a Transferred Municipal Departing Load Nonbypassable Charge Statement. This statement shows the departing load charges that the customer will owe once PG&E electric service is discontinued at the customer’s premise. Customers will owe departing load charges from the date of departure or 30 days from the date of receipt of the statement, whichever is later.

Departing load charges involve costs that have historically been included in bundled service bills and are related to California's energy crisis and the electric industry restructuring. TMDL customers may receive bills from PG&E for these charges even if they no longer receive electric service from the company. Departing load charges that may apply include:

• DEPARTMENT OF WATER (DWR) BOND CHARGE: The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) Bond Charge recovers the cost of bonds issued to finance a portion of the historic cost of power purchased by DWR to serve electric customers. The DWR Bond Charge is collected on behalf of DWR and does not belong to PG&E. The current DWR Bond Charge rate is $0.00469 per kwh for all rate schedules. This charge expires in 2022.
• DWR POWER CHARGE: The DWR Power Charge recovers the uneconomic portion of DWR's prospective power purchase costs. On July 1, 2006, the Power Charge Indifference Adjustment (PCIA) superseded and replaced the DWR Power Charge. After this date, applicable customers no longer incur additional DWR Power Charges but instead incur PCIA charges.
• POWER CHARGE INDIFFERENCE ADJUSTMENT (PCIA): This adjustment (either a charge or credit) is intended to ensure that customers who purchase electricity from non-utility suppliers pay their share of cost for generation acquired prior to 2003.
• NUCLEAR DECOMMISSIONING (ND) CHARGE: The ND Charge collects the funds required for site restoration when PG&E’s nuclear power plants are removed from service. The current ND Charge rate is $0.00027 per kwh for all rate schedules. There is no expiration date for this charge.
• REGULATORY ASSET (RA) CHARGE or its successor, the ENERGY COST RECOVERY AMOUNT (ECRA) CHARGE: These charges repay the principal, interest, and other costs associated with Energy Recovery Bonds established by the PG&E bankruptcy decision. On March 1, 2005, the ECRA Charge superseded and replaced the RA Charge. This charge expires in 2012.
• COMPETITION TRANSITION CHARGE (CTC): The ongoing CTC recovers the cost of qualifying facilities and power purchase agreements that are in excess of a market benchmark determined by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), as well as a portion of electric industry restructuring implementation costs as authorized by the CPUC. The current CTC rate is $0.00013 per kWh for all rate schedules. This charge does not expire.

Customers may be exempt from one or more departing load charges, depending on certain conditions.

• Load Eligible for Leftover Exceptions - to the extent any of the entities referenced above does not utilize its allotted annual DWR Power Charge exception or PCIA exception, the exception shall be made available on an annual first-come, first-served basis to TMDL of POUs that have been in existence on or prior to July 10, 2003, and serving at least 100 customers. The following entities have been found by the Commission to qualify for these Leftover Exceptions:
  • Municipal Utilities: Alameda, Anaheim, Azusa, Banning, Biggs, Burbank, Calaveras, Colton, Glendale, Gridley, Healdburg, Lodi, Lompoc, Los Angeles, Needles, Palo Alto, Pasadena, Pittsburg, Redding, Riverside, Roseville, Santa Clara, Shasta Lake, Tuolumne, Ukiah, Vernon
  • Municipal Utility Districts: Lassen, Sacramento
  • Public Utility Districts: Trinity, Truckee-Donner
  • Irrigation Districts: Imperial, Merced, Modesto, Turlock
  • Other: Port of Stockton

For determining the assignment of any unused portion of the allotted exception to such other TMDL entities under the Bypass Report, priority shall first be given to load transferring specifically from PG&E bundled service.

• RA Charge/ECRA Charge Exemptions – customers that departed prior to January 1, 2000 are exempt from the RA Charge and ECRA Charge. In addition, customers that departed from a location that subsequently, as of December 19, 2003, was no longer part of PG&E’s service area are exempt from the RA Charge and ECRA Charge.

PG&E will issue monthly bills in accordance with the provisions of Electric Rate Schedule E-TMDL. Customers are required to pay Departing load charges in full to PG&E within 20 days of receipt of the bill.

If a consumer believes that the TMDL Nonbypassable Charge Statement does not comply with the terms and conditions provided for in Schedule E-TMDL, the consumer must notify PG&E in writing within 20 days after receipt of the statement. Further information about the dispute resolution process can be found in Section 3.e. of Schedule E-TMDL.