Most Texans Unfamiliar with Non-Affiliated REPs

Most Texas customers are unfamiliar with REPs other than the former affiliated REPs, survey results filed by AEP Texas Commercial & Industrial Retail Limited Partnership show.

The data was included in testimony from AEP Texas Commercial & Industrial Retail Limited Partnership concerning its application for a REP certificate amendment to serve customers under 1 MW in Texas (see Friday's story).

On behalf of AEP Texas Commercial & Industrial Retail Limited Partnership, which is seeking to market as AEP Retail Energy, the Guild Group asked customers at Oncor, CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric, and the AEP Texas utilities their level of familiarity with 11 REPs: AEP Retail Energy; Cirro Energy; CPL Retail Energy; Direct Energy; First Choice; Gexa; Green Mountain; Reliant; Texas Power; TXU Energy; and WTU Retail Energy.

The residential customer survey included 223 phone surveys and 225 internet panels, with two-thirds of respondents residing in the AEP Texas utility service areas.

Notable mass market REPs not apparently included in the question about familiarity include Stream Energy, StarTex Power, Ambit Energy, Amigo Energy, Champion Energy, Spark Energy, and Dynowatt.

Nonetheless, the familiarity question did include several established brands which have been in the market since its start nearly a decade ago.

However, the only REPs to consistently register customer familiarity, across all four service areas, were TXU and Reliant.

Click here (pages 8-9) for survey respondents' level of familiarity with each individual REP.

Of the non-affiliated REPs, only three exceeded 50% in customer familiarity. (For purposes of this metric, a former affiliated REP was considered an A-REP even if outside of its affiliated service area. In other words, TXU and Reliant exceeded 50% familiarity in their non-native service areas, but this was excluded from the metric).

Among the three non-affiliated REPs exceeding 50% familiarity among survey respondents were (1) Green Mountain, at CenterPoint and Oncor, and (2) Texas Power, at Oncor.

And the third REP was AEP Retail Energy, with over 70% of customers at the AEP Texas utilities expressing some level of familiarity with the company. As the AEP Retail Energy trade name is not in use (and AEP Texas Commercial & Industrial Retail Limited Partnership's operations are limited to large volume customers), the customers in the survey expressing familiarity with AEP Retail Energy are undeniably associating it with another AEP company.

At Oncor, the percent of customers expressing at least some level of familiarity with each REP was as follows:

TXU Energy: 90%
Reliant: 85%
Green Mountain: 56%
Texas Power: 53%
Direct Energy: 46%
Gexa: 43%
Cirro Energy: 33%
First Choice: 33%
AEP Retail Energy: 18%
CPL Retail Energy: 16%
WTU Retail Energy: 16%

Additional breakdown and data for other service areas available here (pages 8-9).