PUCT to Investigate Delegating to Staff Authority to Share Customer Info in Fire Sales

The PUCT will investigate whether it can delegate to Staff the ability to authorize the sharing of TDU customer information with REPs acquiring customer books under fire sale-type transactions meant to avoid POLR transitions.

Staff reported that there were significant problems with the customer information that Spark Energy and Our Energy received from Abacus Energy Resources when recently acquiring customers from Abacus to prevent a POLR drop for those Abacus customers.

In a POLR transition, the acquiring REPs may receive customer information from the TDU, but Staff said that current rules do not contemplate such information sharing outside of a POLR mass transition. Staff noted that the Commission, however, could authorize TDUs to share such customer information with the acquiring REPs.

The Commission elected to do so with respect to the Abacus customers, but also directed Staff to investigate whether, in the future, the Commission could delegate such authority to Staff so that Commission action at an open meeting would not be required to authorize the information sharing. Commissioner Donna Nelson said that delegated authority would be appropriate given that time is of the essence in situations where the Commission is working to avoid a POLR drop.