CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric Reaches Agreement on Expanding Load Management Program

CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric informed the PUCT yesterday that it had reached agreement with several parties to expand its load management program, which pays enrolled customers for curtailments during called events at peak times.

CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric did not explicitly state the additional megawatts it expects to enroll under the additional funding agreed to by several parties.

Specifically, CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric reported the following, in Docket No. 39363:

"In light of resource adequacy concerns for the summer of 2012, the Commission has encouraged utilities to explore avenues for increasing commercial load management. This writing is intended to memorialize the agreement of the Commission Staff, the Office of Public Utility Counsel and CenterPoint Houston, which is unopposed by Texas Industrial Energy Consumers, that CenterPoint Houston's 2012 load management program should be increased by $4 million from the budget proposed in its application in Docket No. 39363, for a total of $8.866 million. The total reflects an estimated $8.1 million of incentives and $766,000 of estimated administrative costs. CenterPoint Houston will coordinate with ERCOT to (1) maximize the use of the additional load management for grid reliability purposes, and (2) ensure the program is operated in a manner consistent with Commission policy deliberations in Project No. 37897, P. U.C. Proceeding Relating to Resource and Reserve Adequacy and Shortage Pricing, to the extent the existing load management program design permits."

"Commission Staff, the Office of Public Utility Counsel and CenterPoint Houston agree that CenterPoint Houston may request recovery of the $8.866 million program expenditure as part of its energy efficiency cost recovery factor application filed in 2013, that the additional $4 million program expenditure is being implemented under Substantive Rule 25.181, and, to the extent that the additional expenditure does not cause CenterPoint Houston to exceed the cost caps in the rule, the additional expenditure may be included in the calculation of CenterPoint Houston's performance bonus. All program costs and any shareholder bonus resulting from the additional $4 million program expenditure shall be borne by the CenterPoint Houston customer classes participating in the expanded program."