Texas Staff File Draft to Modify Mechanism for EECRF Charge Applicable to REPs

Staff of the Public Utility Commission of Texas have filed a draft proposal for publication to revise the rules governing the TDU energy efficiency obligations (Subst. R. 25.181) to, among other things, modify how the energy efficiency charge is applied to retail electric providers, and to adjust the cost caps (Project 39674).

Specifically, Staff's draft proposal would provide that the Energy Efficiency Cost Recovery Factor (EECRF) applicable to REPs shall be an energy charge (volumetric) for commercial customers, and a monthly customer charge (flat) for residential customers. The current rule allows the PUCT to use either type of charge for any applicable class.

The draft would also replace the current three-year reconciliation proceedings with an annual true-up during the regular EECRF proceedings.

Under the draft, for a TDU offering customer choice, not later than June 1 of each year, the utility shall apply to adjust its EECRF effective March 1 of the following year.

For a utility offering customer choice, the effective date of a new or adjusted EECRF shall be March 1. The presiding officer shall set a procedural schedule that will enable the utility to file an EECRF compliance tariff consistent with the final order within 10 days of the date of the final order. The procedural schedule shall also provide that the compliance filing date will be at least 45 days before the effective date of March 1, except where good cause supports a different schedule. In no event shall the effective date of any new or adjusted EECRF occur less than 45 days after the utility files a compliance tariff consistent with a final order approving the new or adjusted EECRF.

The cost caps applicable to the energy efficiency programs would be adjusted to:

• For residential customers for program year 2012, $1.30 per month

• For residential customers for program year 2013, $1.60 per month

• For commercial customers for program year 2012, $0.0005 per kWh for the aggregate of all eligible commercial customers' kWh consumption

• For commercial customers for program year 2013, $0.00075 per kWh for the aggregate of all eligible commercial customers' kWh consumption

• For the 2014 program year and thereafter, the residential and commercial cost caps shall be updated in the utility's EECRF proceeding by an amount equal to the most recent annual change in the South urban consumer price index (CPI), as determined by the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The draft proposal would extend an opt-out provision to industrial customers taking service at distribution voltage, allowing customers to avoid bearing costs of the efficiency programs in exchange for their exclusion from program eligibility.

The draft would further provide that, for a utility that offers customer choice, the utility may achieve the efficiency goals in rural areas by providing rebate or incentive funds directly to customers (rather than relying on REPs or third-party energy service companies), after demonstrating to the Commission in a contested case hearing that the goal requirement cannot be met through the implementation of programs by retail electric providers or energy service providers in the rural areas.