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TITLE 16ECONOMIC REGULATION
PART 2PUBLIC UTILITY COMMISSION OF TEXAS
CHAPTER 25SUBSTANTIVE RULES APPLICABLE TO ELECTRIC SERVICE PROVIDERS
SUBCHAPTER LNUCLEAR DECOMMISSIONING
RULE §25.304Nuclear Decommissioning Funding and Requirements for Power Generation Companies

      (iv) For purposes of this subsection, the weighted average remaining life in any given year is defined as the weighted average of years between the given year and the years of each decommissioning outlay, where the weights are based on each year's expected decommissioning expenditures divided by the amount of the remaining liability in that year; and

      (v) Should the market value of non-fixed income investments, measured monthly, exceed the appropriate cap due to market fluctuations, the PGC shall, as soon as practicable, reduce the market value of the non-fixed income investments below the cap. Such reductions may be accomplished by investing all future contributions to the fund in debt securities as is necessary to reduce the market value of the non-fixed income investments below the cap, or if prudent, by the sale of equity securities.

      (vi) A PGC decommissioning trust shall not invest in securities issued by the PGC collecting the funds or any of its affiliates or any company providing security for the state assurance obligation; however, investments of a PGC decommissioning trust may include commingled funds that contain securities issued by the PGC if the securities of the PGC constitute no more than 5.0% of the fair market value of the assets of such commingled funds at the time of the investment.

  (3) The following restrictions shall apply to all PGC decommissioning trusts. Where a PGC has multiple trusts for a single generating unit, the restrictions contained in this subsection apply to all trusts in the aggregate for that generating unit.

    (A) A PGC decommissioning trust shall not invest trust funds in corporate or municipal debt securities that have a bond rating below investment grade (below "BBB-" by Standard and Poor's Corporation or "Baa3" by Moody's Investor's Service) at the time that the securities are purchased and shall reexamine the appropriateness of continuing to hold a particular debt security if the debt rating of the company in question falls below investment grade at any time after the debt security has been purchased. Commingled funds may contain some below investment grade bonds; however, the overall portfolio of debt instruments shall have a quality level, measured quarterly, that is not below a "AA" grade by Standard and Poor's Corporation or "Aa2" by Moody's Investor's Service. In calculating the quality of the overall portfolio, debt securities issued by the federal government shall be considered as having a "AAA" rating.

    (B) At least 70% of the aggregate market value of the equity portfolio, including the individual securities in commingled funds, shall have a quality ranking from a major rating service such as the earnings and dividend ranking for common stock by Standard and Poor's or the quality rating of Ford Investor Services. Further, the overall portfolio of ranked equities shall have a weighted average quality rating equivalent to the composite rating of the Standard and Poor's 500 index, assuming equal weighting of each ranked security in the index. If the quality rating, measured quarterly, falls below the minimum quality standard, the PGC shall as soon as practicable and prudent to do so, increase the quality level of the equity portfolio to the required level. A PGC decommissioning trust shall not invest in equity securities where the issuer has a capitalization of less than $100 million.

    (C) The following guidelines shall apply to the investments made through commingled funds. Examples of commingled funds appropriate for investment by PGC decommissioning trusts include equity-indexed funds, actively managed equity funds, balanced funds, bond funds, and real estate investment trusts.

      (i) The commingled funds should be selected consistent with the goals of this section.

      (ii) In evaluating the appropriateness of a particular commingled fund, the PGC has the following duties, which shall be of a continuing nature:

        (I) A duty to determine whether the fund manager's fee schedule for managing the fund is reasonable, when compared to fee schedules of other such managers;

        (II) A duty to investigate and determine whether the past performance of the investment manager in managing the commingled fund has been reasonable relative to prudent investment and PGC decommissioning trust practices and standards; and

        (III) A duty to investigate the reasonableness of the net after-tax return and risk of the fund relative to similar funds, and the appropriateness of the fund within the entire PGC decommissioning trust investment portfolio.

      (iii) The payment of load fees shall be avoided.

      (iv) Commingled funds focused on specific foreign countries, industries, or market sectors or concentrated in a few holdings shall be used only as necessary to balance the trust's overall investment portfolio mix.


Source Note: The provisions of this §25.304 adopted to be effective March 19, 2008, 33 TexReg 2288; amended to be effective January 9, 2014, 39 TexReg 217

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