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Texas PUC Staff File Report on Just Energy SBF Compliance

July 14, 2016

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Copyright 2010-16 EnergyChoiceMatters.com
Reporting by Paul Ring • ring@energychoicematters.com

The Budget and Fiscal Oversight Division of the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) filed a report on a compliance audit of Just Energy's participation in the LITE-UP Texas program. The scope of the audit covered 2013-15.

Among other findings, the report states that testing revealed Just Energy failed to provide the correct discount to certain customers (exact number redacted) in a timely manner for the September 2013 discount month, when an increase in the average reimbursement rate from 2.4 cents per kWh to 12 cents per kWh occurred. According to the report, Just Energy applied a discount to certain customers in this month that was approximately 80% less, as it used the old discount rate. Just Energy recognized the error and began crediting the additional discounts to the affected customer accounts in February 2014.

More specifically, as noted in Just Energy's statement below, the discrepancy resulted from Just Energy transitioning to Staff's interpretation of the correct application of the discount (in that a September bill with August usage should receive the higher, September discount). Just Energy said that discrepancy was limited to one week of billing, in the first week of September 2013, resulting from an automated billing system issue that initially applied the September 2013 discount rate only to customers who had electricity usage in September

Just Energy provided the following statement to EnergyChoiceMatters.com:

"The PUC report clarifies that Just Energy voluntarily adjusted all affected customer accounts to reflect the updated, correct discount amount. The discrepancy was contained to one week’s of billing, in the first week of September. It was the result of an automated billing system issue that initially applied the September 2013 discount rate only to customers who had electricity usage in September. Based on guidelines from the PUC Staff, Just Energy voluntarily adjusted the discounts to apply the September discount rate to all customer bills mailed in September even if the usage period for that bill ended in August. While we continue to believe our original interpretation of the rule language was reasonable, Just Energy voluntarily modified its application of the LITE-UP discount to conform to staff guidelines for all subsequent time periods. The audit report acknowledges that our systems are consistent with the current Staff guidelines and meets their expectations." -- Just Energy

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