Texas Switch Holds Less Than Half a Percent of Residential ESI-IDs

Switch holds placed on customers as part of entering into a deferred payment plan with a retail electric provider apply to less than 0.5% of residential ESI IDs in ERCOT since the introduction of switch holds in June, according to data filed by the TDUs.

As previously reported, REPs, effective June 1, were authorized to place switch holds on customers entering into a deferred payment plan, which prevents the customer from switching to another REP until the terms of the payment plan are satisfied.

A monthly snapshot of the current number of residential ESI IDs subject to a switch hold for June and July is available here.

In no service area does the number of residential ESI IDs subject to a switch hold exceed 0.5%. AEP Texas Central has the highest percent of residential ESI IDs subject to a switch hold, at 0.460% as of July 31.

In terms of the actual number of residential ESI IDs, Oncor has the most ESI IDs subject to a switch hold, with 5,038 as of July 31.

Generally, the amount of residential ESI IDs subject to a switch hold approximately doubled in each service area from June to July.

This is not surprising given that, unless the customer agrees to a shorter period, deferred payment plans must cover at least five billing cycles, so most switch holds won't roll off until then. However, some service areas are seeing over 400 switch holds removed per month (or 10% of the total), indicating accelerated payments by customers.