| (G) Nuclear Decommissioning Fee--A charge assessed
to recover a TDU's charges for decommissioning of nuclear generating
sites. Acceptable abbreviation: Nuclear Decommission.
(H) PUC Assessment--A fee assessed to recover the statutory
fee for administering the Public Utility Regulatory Act.
(I) Sales tax--Sales tax collected by authorized taxing
authorities, such as the state, cities and special purpose districts.
(J) TDU Delivery Charges--The total amounts assessed
by a TDU for the delivery of electricity to a customer over poles
and wires and other TDU facilities not including discretionary charges.
(K) Transmission Distribution Surcharges--One or more
TDU surcharge(s) on a customer's bill in any combination. Surcharges
include charges billed as tariff riders by the TDU. Acceptable abbreviation:
TDU Surcharges.
(L) Transition Charge--A charge assessed to recover
a TDU's charges for securitized costs associated with the transition
to competition.
(3) If the REP includes any of the following terms
in its bills, the term must be applied in a manner consistent with
the definitions, and such term and its definition must be easily located
on the REP's website and available to a customer free of charge upon
request:
(A) Base Charge--A charge assessed during each billing
cycle without regard to the customer's demand or energy consumption.
(B) Demand Charge--A charge based on the rate at which
electric energy is delivered to or by a system at a given instant,
or averaged over a designated period, during the billing cycle.
(C) Energy Charge--A charge based on the electric energy
(kWh) consumed.
(4) A REP must provide an itemization of charges, including
non-bypassable charges, to the customer upon the customer's request
and, to the extent that the charges are consistent with the terms
set out in paragraph (2), of this subsection, the terms must be used
in the itemization.
(5) A customer's electric bill must not contain charges
for electric service from a service provider other than the customer's
designated REP.
(6) A REP must include on each residential and small
commercial billing statement, in boldfaced and underlined type, the
date, as provided for in §25.475(c)(3)(B) of this title (relating
to General Retail Electric Provider Requirements and Information Disclosure
to Residential and Small Commercial Customers) that a fixed rate product
will expire.
(7) To the extent that a REP uses the concepts identified
in this paragraph in a customer's bill, it must use the term set out
in this paragraph, and the definitions in this paragraph must be easily
located on the REP's website. A REP may not use a different term for
a concept that is defined in this paragraph.
(A) kW--Kilowatt, the standard unit for measuring electricity
demand, equal to 1,000 watts;
(B) kWh--Kilowatt-hour, the standard unit for measuring
electricity energy consumption, equal to 1,000 watt-hours; and
(8) Notice of contract expiration may be provided in
a bill in accordance with §25.475 of this title.
(d) Public service notices. A REP must, as required
by the commission after reasonable notice, provide brief public service
notices to its customers. The REP must provide these public service
notices to its customers on its billing statements, as a separate
document issued with its bill, by electronic communication, or by
other acceptable mass communication methods, as approved by the commission.
Additionally, in April and October of each year, or as otherwise directed
by the commission, the REP must provide information to each customer
along with the customer's bill about:
(1) The electric utility's procedures for implementing
involuntary load shedding initiated by the independent organization
certified for the ERCOT power region under PURA §39.151;
(2) The types of customers who may be considered critical
care residential customers, critical load industrial customers, or
critical load according to commission rules adopted under PURA §38.076;
(3) The procedure for a customer to apply to be considered
a critical care customer, a critical load industrial customer, or
critical load according to commission rules adopted under PURA §38.076;
and
(4) Reducing electricity use at times when involuntary
load shedding events may be implemented.
(e) Estimated bills. If a REP is unable to issue a
bill based on actual meter reading due to the failure of the TDU,
the registration agent, municipally owned utility or electric cooperative
to obtain or transmit a meter reading or an invoice for non-bypassable
charges to the REP on a timely basis, the REP may issue a bill based
on the customer's estimated usage and inform the customer of the reason
for the issuance of the estimated bill.
(f) Non-recurring charges. A REP may pass through to
its customers all applicable non-recurring charges billed to the REP
by a TDU, municipally owned utility, or electric cooperative as a
result of establishing, switching, disconnecting, reconnecting, or
maintaining service to an applicant or customer. In the event of a
meter test, the TDU, municipally owned utility, electric cooperative,
and REP must comply with the requirements of §25.124 of this
title (relating to Meter Testing) or with the requirements of the
tariffs of a TDU, municipally owned utility, or electric cooperative,
as applicable. The TDU, municipally owned utility, or electric cooperative
must maintain a record of all meter tests performed at the request
of a REP or a REP's customers.
(g) Record retention. A REP must maintain monthly billing
and payment records for each account for at least 24 months after
the date the bill is mailed. The billing records must contain sufficient
data to reconstruct a customer's billing for a given period. A copy
of a customer's billing records may be obtained by that customer on
request, and may be obtained once per 12-month period, at no charge.
(h) Transfer of delinquent balances or credits. If
the customer has an outstanding balance or credit owed to the customer's
current REP that is due from a previous account in the same customer
class, then the customer's current REP may transfer that balance to
the customer's current account. The delinquent balance and specific
account or address must be identified as such on the bill. There must
be no balance transfers between REPs, other than transfer of a deposit,
as specified in §25.478(j)(2) of this title.
|
| Source Note: The provisions of this §25.479 adopted to be effective January 15, 2001, 26 TexReg 125; amended to be effective June 1, 2004, 29 TexReg 4756; amended to be effective January 6, 2010, 35 TexReg 78; amended to be effective May 13, 2018, 43 TexReg 3001; amended to be effective January 6, 2022, 46 TexReg 9242 |
