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ERCOT Says Transferring Customer-Facing Aspect of Smart Meter Texas To ERCOT Inappropriate, Introduces Risk

July 21, 2015

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Copyright 2010-15 EnergyChoiceMatters.com
Reporting by Karen Abbott • kabbott@energychoicematters.com

ERCOT is "amenable" to taking on certain data warehouse and management functions of Smart Meter Texas, but said that it should not be charged with any customer-facing aspects of SMT, such as the customer portal, ERCOT said in comments to the Public Utility Commission of Texas

"ERCOT is amenable to taking ownership of the SMT portal's data warehouse and related data management functions, assuming ERCOT has authority to appropriately fund these new functions," ERCOT said

"However, ERCOT believes that it should remain independent of end-use customer-facing activities and responsibilities. Accordingly, ERCOT does not believe that the ownership or operation responsibilities of a portal with graphical user interface (GUI) functionalities (i.e., customer-facing roles), as currently provided by the SMT portal, should be transferred to ERCOT," ERCOT said.

"Customer-facing roles of the current SMT portal include the following: direct customer meter data access; requests for on-demand reads; hosted area network (HAN) access, device registration and management, and reporting functionality; third-party authorization processes and access to customer meter data; customer education; and customer contact services," ERCOT said.

"A total transition of the functions and responsibilities of the SMT portal to ERCOT would place it in a customer-facing role, and expose ERCOT to risk and liability associated with managing a customer service business," ERCOT said

"Although the customer owns his/her meter data, TDUs are treated as meter agents, and as such, it is reasonable to assume that any requirement to provide an end-use customer with access to meter data, from a source other than the customer's chosen competitive Retail Electric Provider (REP or REP of Record) and/or third party, should remain with the appropriate TDU," ERCOT said.

"Even if a full transition of the portal to ERCOT were to occur, TDUs would continue to maintain the actual data necessary for addressing customer issues. Shifting this responsibility to ERCOT would create an additional and unnecessary process layer that could potentially increase the volume of issues concerning customer meter data," ERCOT said.

"During PUC and stakeholder discussions concerning a portal transition, the idea of eliminating the centralized portal (the current SMT portal) was developed. Eliminating a centralized portal would place a limited requirement for the provision of a customer's meter data on the REP of Record, or potentially on the TDUs, individually or in a federated manner. ERCOT takes no position on this issue other than to highlight two considerations. First, under this approach, the data warehouse function could still be assigned to ERCOT. Secondly, this approach would require a solution for third party agreement and authorization that does not rely on end-use customer enrollment in a centralized portal," ERCOT said.

The joint TDUs favor making ERCOT responsible for "all" elements of SMT. Retail providers "prefer" ERCOT ownership of all SMT functions

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