Types and Categories of Proceedings
The Colorado Public Utilities Commission’s (PUC’s) mission is to serve the public interest by effectively regulating utilities and facilities so that the people of Colorado receive safe, reliable, and reasonably-priced services consistent with the economic, environmental, and social values of our state.
The decision-making process of the PUC involves legal proceedings, typically initiated by an application or petition containing a request for decision. The parties present evidence to support their positions. This evidence is presented to the Commission or to an administrative law judge in the form of written and oral testimony. The Commission or judge makes its decision based upon the evidence provided.
A proceeding can take anywhere from one month to several years depending on the type of proceeding. Types of proceedings include:
Application Proceedings: A formal pleading filed by a regulated entity. The PUC distributes a public notice of the application including all interested persons and establishing a timeline within which requests to participate as a party (a motion to intervene) must be filed. Motions to intervene can be filed by any entity with a justified financial or tangible interest in the request. The proceeding schedule then depends on the number of parties and the Commission or judge’s calendar. In any instance, the Commission is required by statute to issue a final decision within 250 days, unless extended by extraordinary circumstances.
Advice Letter/Tariff Proceedings: A formal proposal by a utility to establish new tariffs or to revise existing tariffs, through which the utility submits proposed new or revised tariff pages to the Commission for inclusion in its effective tariff. The most common type of advice letter/tariff proceeding is a regulated utilities’ request to change rates, or a rate case. Tariff changes go into effect on their proposed effective date unless suspended and set for hearing by the Commission.
Formal Complaint/Petition Hearings: Initiated by a person, business, or government entity alleging violation of the PUC’s Rules and Regulations or decisions.
Investigatory Proceedings: Initiated by the Commission to gather information on a particular topic or issue. Investigatory proceedings do not result in a Commission decision.
Rulemaking: Initiated by the Commission through a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) to create new rules or make changes to existing rules. The rulemaking process is governed by Section 24-4-101 of the Colorado Revised Statutes. There are no formal parties in rulemaking proceedings. Instead, all members of the public, utilities, and other stakeholders are ‘participants’ and are allowed to submit written comments at any time during the rulemaking and are allowed to participate in any scheduled public comment hearings.
Other important terms: "Adjudicatory proceeding" means the following types of proceedings: applications, petitions, other than petitions for rulemaking, formal complaints, show cause proceedings, and advice letter proceedings after suspension of the effective date by the Commission Advice letter proceedings aren’t adjudicatory, until they have been suspended and set for hearing.
“Administrative proceeding" means a non-adjudicatory proceeding regarding any matter the Commission wishes to investigate, any matter concerning the administration of programs or functions committed to the Commission, any matter concerning general Commission policy, any miscellaneous matter, advice letter proceedings prior to suspension of the effective date by Commission decision, any petition requesting a rulemaking proceeding, or any proceeding designated by the Commission as an administrative proceeding.
Evidentiary Hearing (as part of a proceeding): The purpose is to gather evidence so a judge or the PUC can fully understand the issues in a case. Participants can present evidence through written and oral testimony. Parties to the proceeding receive all motions, decisions, briefs, testimony and exhibits, and other pertinent documents filed in the proceeding.
Public Hearings (as part of a proceedings): A judge or the Commissioners can schedule a public comment hearing to allow members of the public to offer comments related to the specific proceeding. All public comments received at the public comment hearings are transcribed and reviewed in decision making. In addition, all written comments are accepted and made part of a proceeding.
Miscellaneous Hearings: Used when the pleading does not fall in any other category.