Briefly

PUCT Staff Seeks Revocation of TexRep6, Vantage Power Services Certificates

PUCT Staff filed a petition to revoke the REP certificate of TexRep6, LLC, which was previously purchased by Smartcom Technologies, LLC, for its alleged failure to comply with new financial and managerial requirements under SUBST. R. 25.107(f)(1) & SUBST. R. 25.107(f)(2) as well as SUBST. R. 25.107(g)(1)(D) & SUBST. R. 25.107(g)(1)(E).

PUCT Staff also sought to revoke the REP certificate of Vantage Power Services, LP, alleging that Vantage has not demonstrated compliance with the new financial and managerial requirements of SUBST. R 25.107. In 2007, Vantage sold substantially all of its assets to MXenergy.

Docket 38732: TexRep6
Docket 38734: Vantage Power Services

Lahey & Partners Seeks to Relinquish REP Certificate
Lahey & Partners, LLC filed to relinquish its Texas REP certificate, stating that it has never conducted business. Staff had previously filed to revoke Lahey & Partners' certificate for allegedly failing to meet the new financial requirements of Subst. R. 25.107. Withdrawing the certificate allows the principals to avoid the distinction of having been involved with a REP whose certificate was revoked, and Lahey & Partners did confirm in a PUCT filing that some of its principals, who were not identified, may wish to reapply for a new REP certificate for a different company when current financial negotiations are completed.

D.C. OPC Seeks Delay of AMI Deployment Until Comprehensive Customer Education Plan Developed
The District of Columbia Office of People's Counsel petitioned the D.C. PSC to require Pepco to delay its citywide deployment of advanced metering until the company begins a comprehensive consumer education and media outreach program educating consumers on the smart grid and the manner in which the company will install its new smart meters in the District of Columbia. While OPC has reviewed literature developed by Pepco for customer education, OPC said that the information needs to be expanded, and needs to be coordinated with media and other outreach efforts, citing positive and negative experiences in smart meter deployments at other utilities as universally finding that early and frequent customer education will lead to less customer skepticism and greater acceptance of smart meters, and their attendant benefits.

Formal Case 1056


South Jersey Subsidiaries to Pay $950,000 to Settle Alleged Violations of FERC Gas Open Access Rules
FERC approved a stipulation under which South Jersey Gas Company and South Jersey Resources Group, LLC will pay a civil penalty of $950,000 and disgorge $120,550.69, plus interest, in profits to resolve allegations by FERC Enforcement Staff that the companies violated the competitive bidding requirements for long-term, discounted rate capacity releases; the shipper-must-have-title requirement; and the prohibition on buy/sell transactions.

Enforcement Staff alleged that South Jersey Gas improperly released 36.1 Bcf of discounted rate capacity through flipping transactions between January 2005 and October 2007, and that South Jersey Gas did not post the capacity releases for bidding.

Enforcement Staff alleged that South Jersey Resources violated the shipper-must-have-title requirement between November 2007 and July 2008 when it transported 1.6 Bcf of South Jersey Resources-titled gas on three interstate pipelines using the transportation capacity of an unaffiliated third party.

Enforcement Staff alleged that South Jersey Gas violated the prohibition on buy/sell transactions between July 2005 and December 2007 when South Jersey Gas purchased 2 Bcf of other parties' gas, transported or stored that gas using its capacity on Transco, and then sold equivalent volumes of gas back to the parties.

Docket IN10-6

RRI Energy to Pay $750,000 to Settle Alleged Violations of FERC Gas Open Access Rules
FERC approved a stipulation under which RRI Energy, Inc. and RRI Energy Wholesale Generation, LLC will pay a civil penalty of $750,000 to resolve allegations from FERC Enforcement Staff that RRI violated the prohibition on buy/sell transactions and competitive bidding requirements for long-term, discounted rate capacity releases. Enforcement Staff alleged RRI engaged in buy/sell transactions involving the transportation of 164.2 Bcf of natural gas from 2000 to 2008. Additionally, an RRI affiliate released 1.6 Bcf of capacity on Texas Eastern at a discounted rate to two entities, affiliated with each other but not with RRI, over four consecutive months, (December 5, 2006 through March 31, 2007), and did not post the capacity for competitive bidding, Staff alleged. RRI self-reported the buy/sell and flipping transactions.

Docket IN10-7