| (a) Purpose. This section establishes the parameters
under which an electric utility shall offer customer choice for 5.0%
of the load in its Texas service area beginning on June 1, 2001, through
the implementation of retail competition pilot projects. The commission
may use these pilot projects to evaluate the ability of each power
region to implement full customer choice on January 1, 2002, including
the operational readiness of support systems. The pilot projects conducted
under this section also will serve to encourage participation in a
competitive retail market and to inform customers about customer choice.
(b) Application.
(1) This section applies to an electric utility as
defined in the Public Utility Regulatory Act (PURA) §31.002(6).
An electric utility exempt from PURA Chapter 39 in accordance with
PURA §39.102(c) may conduct a customer choice pilot project consistent
with the requirements of this section upon expiration of its exemption.
A pilot project commencing before the adoption of this section may
fulfill portions of the requirements of this section, as determined
by the commission.
(2) Other entities, including retail electric providers
(REPs) certified by the commission, and aggregators, power generation
companies, and power marketers registered with the commission may
participate in the pilot projects under the terms and conditions established
by this section.
(c) Intent of pilot projects. Pilot projects conducted
under this section are intended to implement customer choice for all
applicable customers in the same manner in which full customer choice
will be offered starting January 1, 2002, to the extent practicable.
Unless determined otherwise through a subsequent commission proceeding,
or unless stated otherwise in this section, all pilot project participants
who are not retail customers shall abide by all applicable commission
rules, including but not limited to, rules relating to customer protection
and transmission and distribution terms and conditions, and all rules
of an independent organization as defined in PURA §39.151.
(1) Utility's obligation to serve. A utility shall
continue to provide electric service in accordance with PURA and the
commission's substantive rules to requesting customers in its certificated
service area who do not wish to take service from a REP.
(2) Indemnification. Market participants, including
utilities, shall be held harmless for any damages resulting from any
non-willful system or process failures during the pilot project.
(3) Performance standards.
(A) Call center performance may be compromised by potential
large increases of customer inquiries generated because of the customer
education program and pilot project activities. For the period February
1, 2001 through December 31, 2001, as applicable to each utility,
(i) a reduction of five percentage points will be applied
to the percentage of calls to be answered in the allowable time; or
(ii) 5.0% of the calls with the longest wait time will
be subtracted from the calculation of average answer time.
(B) An affected utility shall track and report such
performance during the pilot project in accordance with applicable
commission rules and orders. An affected utility does not waive any
rights to request an adjustment or waiver of performance standards
directly affected by the customer education program or pilot project.
(4) Effect of pre-existing service agreements or contracts.
(A) To the extent a customer is otherwise eligible
to participate in a pilot project in accordance with this section,
a utility shall not challenge a customer's right to participate:
(i) based upon a claimed failure to provide notice
of cancellation in accordance with the requirements of an existing
service agreement, contract, or tariff; or
(ii) in the event that the customer's service agreement
or contract is beyond its primary term.
(B) To the extent a customer is otherwise eligible
to participate in a pilot project in accordance with this section,
customers in the primary term of a service agreement or contract shall
have the right to participate in the pilot project subject to a challenge
by the utility based upon a service agreement or contractual issue
other than failure to provide notice of cancellation in compliance
with an existing service agreement, contract, or tariff. The procedure
for any such challenge shall be as follows:
(i) A utility contending that a customer that has been
otherwise selected to participate in the pilot project is not eligible
to participate, because of an existing service agreement or contract
in its primary term, shall inform the customer not later than seven
days after the date scheduled for the lottery for the applicable class
in the event the class is oversubscribed or the date the customer
requests participation in the event the class is undersubscribed.
(ii) If the customer wishes to dispute the utility's
contention, the customer must, within seven days of receipt of the
utility's notification, so inform the utility. Pending resolution
of the dispute, the utility shall reserve a place for that customer
on the participant list.
(iii) The customer shall be entitled to participate
in the pilot project unless the utility informs the commission of
the pilot project eligibility dispute within seven days of receipt
of the customer's notification to the utility disputing the claim
of ineligibility. Upon receipt by the commission of timely notice
of the dispute, the commission will resolve the dispute within 30
days after filing, and may do so administratively.
(iv) If the commission determines that the customer
is eligible to participate, the customer will be included within the
pilot project as soon as practicable after the decision.
(5) Right to withdraw from pilot project. For any reason,
and at a customer's request, the REP and the incumbent utility shall
restore a residential customer's account to pre-pilot project services
and rates. In the event a customer's REP ceases to do business in
Texas during the pilot project, the incumbent utility shall restore
any customer's account to pre-pilot project services and rates at
the customer's request.
(6) Application of renewable energy rule. To encourage
access to energy generated from renewable resources by customers participating
in the pilot projects, the renewable energy mandate provisions of §25.173
of this title (relating to Goal for Renewable Energy) will be extended
on a voluntary basis during the pilot projects to the competitive
portion of the market, with the following changes:
(A) Each REP may acquire and retire renewable energy
credits (RECs) consistent with its share of retail kilowatt-hour sales
during the pilot period (June 1, 2001 through December 31, 2001),
at a rate consistent with REC obligations for the year 2002, and in
the manner specified in §25.173(h) of this title;
(B) Each REC retired for the pilot period will reduce
the REC obligations of the REP for the year 2002 compliance period;
(C) The voluntary settlement period for the pilot project
renewable energy program will commence January 1, 2002 and end March
31, 2002; and
(D) Penalty provisions of §25.173(o) of this title
are not applicable.
(7) End of pilot projects. The pilot projects will
end on December 31, 2001, unless determined otherwise by the commission
in accordance with subsection (j) of this section. For an electric
utility exempt from PURA Chapter 39 in accordance with PURA §39.102(c),
the pilot project, if undertaken, will begin and end on dates deemed
reasonable by the commission. A customer will remain with the REP
by which he or she was served on the last day of the pilot project
until the customer or the REP elects otherwise. By participating in
the pilot project, a customer does not waive any right to take service
under the price to beat in accordance with PURA §39.202.
(d) Definitions. The following terms when used in this
section shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly
indicates otherwise:
(1) Aggregation--includes the purchase of electricity
from a retail electric provider, a municipally owned utility, or an
electric cooperative by an electricity customer for its own use in
multiple locations or as part of a voluntary association of electricity
customers. An electricity customer may not avoid any non-bypassable
charges or fees as a result of aggregating its load.
(2) Customer class--a grouping of customers, specific
to the pilot projects, for the purpose of allocating loads available
for customer choice during the pilot projects. The five customer classes
used in the pilot projects are:
(A) Residential--all customers identified by an electric
service identifier (ESI) who purchase electricity under a utility's
residential rate schedule.
(B) Non-residential, non-demand metered--all customers
identified by an ESI who:
(i) do not purchase electricity under a utility's residential
rate schedule; and
(ii) do not purchase electricity under a utility's
municipal or school rate schedule; and
(iii) do not purchase electricity under a utility's
rate schedule that is based on metered or estimated demand during
the twelve month period ending December 31, 2000.
(C) Industrial demand-metered--all customers identified
by an ESI who:
(i) do not purchase electricity under a utility's residential
rate schedule; and
(ii) purchase electricity under a utility's rate schedule
that is based on a metered demand; and
(iii) purchase electricity under a utility's industrial
rate schedules (or are identified as industrial by the utility's rate
code if the utility does not have industrial rate schedules) or have
filed a manufacturing or processing tax exemption certificate with
the utility.
(D) Commercial and all other demand-metered--all customers
identified by an ESI who:
(i) do not purchase electricity under a utility's residential
rate schedule; and
(ii) do not come within the definition of the industrial
demand metered customer class; and
(iii) purchase electricity under a utility's rate schedule
that is based on a metered demand.
(E) Other--The other customer class is composed of
all customers identified by an ESI who:
(i) purchase electricity under a utility's rate schedule
that is based on known usage patterns, not actual metered data (i.e.,
unmetered loads); or
(ii) purchase electricity under a utility's municipal
or school rate schedules; or
(iii) purchase electricity under utility rate schedules
applicable to seasonal agricultural use, such as cotton gins, irrigation,
or grain elevators.
(3) Electric service identifier (ESI)--premise-based
identifier assigned to each electric service delivery point between
a transmission and distribution utility and an end-use load, which
is used in the Texas customer registration system and the Electric
Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) settlement system.
(4) Lottery--fair process in which ESIs or aggregator
packets of ESIs are selected for participation in a pilot project
by using standard statistical methods for simple random sampling;
each ESI or aggregator packet of ESIs should have an equal chance
of actually being selected.
(5) Participation--occurs when the customer takes service
from a retail electric provider that is not the incumbent, integrated
utility.
(e) Requirements for participants that are not retail
customers.
(1) A REP must be certified by the commission pursuant
to §25.107 of this title (relating to Certification of Retail
Electric Providers) prior to participating in pilot projects established
pursuant to this section. An affiliated REP shall not participate
in the certificated service area of the electric utility with which
it is affiliated.
(2) An aggregator, other than a self-aggregator, must
be registered with the commission pursuant to §25.111 of this
title (relating to Registration of Aggregators) prior to participating
in pilot projects established pursuant to this section.
(3) A power generation company must be registered with
the commission pursuant to §25.109 of this title (relating to
Registration of Power Generation Companies) prior to participating
in pilot projects established pursuant to this section. A utility
need not be registered as a power generation company in order to generate
power for sale during the pilot projects.
(4) A power marketer must be registered with the commission
pursuant to §25.105 of this title (relating to Registration and
Reporting by Power Marketers) prior to participating in pilot projects
established pursuant to this section.
(5) An independent transmission organization outside
of ERCOT may require a market participant to register with that organization
in order to become a wholesale buyer and seller of energy across the
transmission system.
Cont'd... |
