| (a) This section applies to proceedings brought pursuant
to Texas Utilities Code, §103.055 and §104.102.
(b) Upon request by a party, the presiding officer
may limit discovery, by order, in the interest of efficiency and justice.
(c) For purposes of calculating the number of requests
for information (RFIs), each request or subpart shall be considered
a separate RFI. Absent a showing of good cause, a reasonable limitation
on RFIs propounded to a party is no more than 600 total RFIs, with
no more than 75 RFIs propounded by a single party in one calendar
week. Commission staff and presiding officers are not subject to these
discovery limitations when Commission staff or the presiding officers
issue the RFIs.
(d) With regard to discovery propounded by a municipality
or municipal coalition, to the extent that the utility first filed
its request for relief at the municipal level and a municipal party
has requested that the discovery propounded at the municipal level
be updated, and the Commission is now considering the utility's request
on appeal from the municipal forum, the number of RFIs (inclusive
of subparts) that the municipality propounded at the municipal level
shall count towards the total number of permissible RFIs a municipality
may serve on the utility during the Commission proceeding on appeal,
unless the utility updated its test year when filing its appeal.
(e) If a party is not required to answer a question
due to a sustained objection or withdrawal, that question may not
be included in the calculation of the propounding party's RFI limit.
However, if the presiding officer determines that a party is intentionally
propounding frivolous, irrelevant, or otherwise objectionable requests,
the question shall be included in the calculation of that propounding
party's RFI limit.
(f) As set forth in the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure
196 and 198, there shall be no limitation with regard to requests
for production and inspection, or requests for admission.
(g) The party propounding discovery shall separately
characterize its discovery as an RFI, a Request for Production and
Inspection, or a Request for Admission.
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