|
|
|
|
|
Texas Staff Seek Additional $600,000 Administrative Penalty on Retail Provider, Alleging More Violations
Staff of the Oversight and Enforcement Division of the Public Utility Commission of Texas have increased the amount of an administrative penalty that Staff requests be imposed on Proton Energy, Inc., as Staff alleged further violations of Commission rules.
Staff filed to increase the sought civil penalty by $600,000, which would increase the total civil penalty sought by Staff to $2.78 million. Staff said that the new allegations resulted from discovery during the proceeding, in which Staff is also seeking to revoke the REP certificate of Proton Energy (click here for details on proceeding and prior allegations)
P.U.C. SUBST. R. 25.107(f)(2)(B) requires a REP to keep customer deposits and residential advance payments in an escrow account or segregated cash account, or to provide an irrevocable stand-by letter of credit payable to the commission in an amount sufficient to cover 100% of the REP's outstanding customer deposits and residential advance payments held at the close of each month.
Staff alleged that, "Proton has violated this rule by failing to maintain an irrevocable stand-by letter of credit payable to the commission in an amount sufficient to cover 100% of the REP's outstanding customer deposits."
"Proton has a $3,000 irrevocable stand-by letter of credit payable to the commission on file for its deposits. However, Proton's own records demonstrate that Proton has held customer deposits in excess of $3,000 since July of 2012," Staff alleged.
Staff further alleged that, "Proton can only produce notices based on a disconnection template that is currently hard coded into its system. Proton cannot produce the disconnection notices that it actually sent out to at least 407 of its customers."
Staff alleged that the alleged failure to produce records of these notices violates P.U.C. SUBST. R. 25.491(b), which provides that relevant records must be retained for at least two years, unless otherwise specified.
"Failure to provide an irrevocable stand-by letter of credit payable to the commission in an amount sufficient to cover 100% of the REP's outstanding customer deposits potentially places customers' deposits at risk in the event Proton experiences business or financial stress and is unable to pay its obligations and remain a going concern. Additionally, Proton's failure to retain records necessary to show compliance with Commission rules for at least two years adversely affects the Commission's oversight of Proton's operations, as well as customers' ability to resolve customer-specific disputes and complaints. Proton's practice of deleting records in the face of a specific rule to the contrary is but one more example of Proton's serious disregard of Commission rules. The extent to which Proton continues to fail to comply with Commission rules suggests that Proton is incapable of, or perhaps unwilling to, comply with such rules," Staff alleged
Docket 41848
ADVERTISEMENT Search for more retail energy careers: Copyright 2010-
February 27, 2014
Email This Story
Copyright 2010-13 EnergyChoiceMatters.com
Reporting by Paul Ring • ring@energychoicematters.com
NEW Jobs on RetailEnergyJobs.com:
• NEW! -- Manager, Channel Sales -- Retail Provider
• NEW! -- Operations Specialist – Market Transactions -- Retail Provider -- Houston
• NEW! -- Regional Sales Manager -- Retail Provider -- PA, NY, IL, Various
• NEW! -- Regional Sales Manager, Texas -- Retail Supplier -- Houston
• NEW! -- Vice President of Operations -- Retail Supplier
• NEW! -- Senior Business Analyst -- Retail Supplier
• NEW! -- National Accounts, Sales Advisor – Commercial -- Retail Supplier
• NEW! -- Energy Analyst (aka Pit Crew Member) -- DFW
• NEW! -- Sales Representative -- Retail Supplier -- Houston
• NEW! -- Energy Sales Manager -- Retail Provider
RetailEnergyJobs.com
|
|
|
|