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Broad Range Of Comments Proposed Re: Changes To Competition Rules
As previously reported, the Texas PUC is statutorily required to conduct a quadrennial rule review for Chapter 25, substantive rules applicable to electric service providers. Below are additional comments filed in this matter.
PUCT Staff recommended amending 25.474: Selection of [REP] to require a REP “or aggregator to advise the applicant if early termination fees may apply… for all door-to-door” and other personal solicitations.
AARP says that “[d]ue to the importance of protecting the health and safety of residential electric customers, especially during periods of extreme weather, AARP Texas urges the PUCT to revise Chapter 25 rules to: • Introduce a moratorium on utility disconnections for the hot summer months, particularly during life-threatening periods of extreme heat (either seasonal or temperature-based), and • Require transparent public monthly reporting of standardized disconnection data by each of the electric service providers regulated by the PUCT.
Texas Competitive Power Advocates (TCPA) “recommends the repeal of 16 Tex. Admin. Code (“TAC”) § 25.173, as the Renewable Portfolio Standard (“RPS”) program is to be phased out and eliminated effective September 1, 2025. Alternatively, the Commission could replace this section with a streamlined rule commemorating ERCOT’s authorization to administer a purely voluntary accreditation program.” TCPA also “suggests clean-ups in 16 TAC § 25.476, including elimination of references to the soon-to-be-repealed RPS and the repeal of language that requires generators to annually report certain data to ERCOT (and ERCOT to maintain that data in “generator scorecards”) that is no longer of practical use.”
Similarly Texas Electric Cooperatives recommends repeal of 25.173: Renewable Energy Credit Program, noting that the RPS program has been “eliminated by the legislature and set for phase out by 9/1/25,” with TCPA recommending in the alternative to replace it “with a streamlined rule that commemorates ERCOT’s authorization to administer a purely voluntary accreditation program to avoid any confusion going forward.”
Texas Energy Association for Marketers and Alliance for Retail Markets (REP Coalition) recommended updating the rule to:) (i) provide one set of enrollment requirements/disclosures that are the same across all channels, with the possibility of additional requirements for door-to-door… to comply with Federal requirements.”(ii) “reflect current technology,” such as permitting “include express authorization for paperless plans, including paperless bills, at the customer’s selection”; and (iii) include a “Safe harbor provision – if the REP completes all disclosures and verifications in accordance with the rule, then the REP is not responsible for an inadvertent gain or any associated charge.”
See all comments at docket link below.
57999
(PUCT Statutorily Required Quadrennial Rule Review For Chapter 25, Substantive Rules Applicable To Electric Service Providers (ESPs).
