Clearview Electric Offers to Not Enroll New Customers; Provide Reduced Bond Under Requested §25.107 Waiver

Clearview Electric has explicitly offered to not add any new customers to its ERCOT book as part of its request for a temporary waiver of the new financial requirements under P.U.C. SUBST. R. §25.107(f), it said in a brief supporting its request (38446).

As only reported in Matters (7/14/10), Clearview was not explicit in its initial request regarding whether it would serve any new customers while subject to the waiver. Clearview had originally offered not to conduct any new "marketing campaign[s]" until meeting the requirements of new §25.107, but was not explicit that it would not accept any new enrollments inbounding to Clearview independent of any marketing efforts.

In a recently filed brief supporting its requested waiver, Clearview confirmed that it, "is willing to enter into a consent decree in which it agrees not to add any new customers until it can meet the full requirements of new 16 TAC 25.107, which it hopes to do in 2012."

Furthermore, Clearview also offered to post a lesser surety more consistent with the load it serves, which is about 60 customers. For example, Clearview said that a $100,000 performance bond would represent an amount more than 10 times Clearview's average monthly Texas billings, which is about $9,500.

Previously, Clearview had not explicitly suggested any such bonding requirement as an alternative to the current §25.107. Indeed, Clearview's original waiver application was silent as to whether the former §25.107 would apply during the waiver period (which sets a lower financial threshold attainable through several instruments including unused cash).

Clearview reiterated its argument that it is sufficiently capitalized to protect its limited customer base against any adverse market conditions, and said that, "[i]n this particular case, the new rules themselves are threatening to drive a small, but conservatively and well-managed REP out of business, exposing its customers to the very harm [a POLR transition] the rules were meant to protect against."