Citing Resource Adequacy, Texas State Affairs Chair Wants Single-Commissioner Public Utility Commission

Texas State Representative Byron Cook, Chair of the House Committee on State Affairs, has proposed that the current structure of the Public Utility Commission of Texas be replaced with a single commissioner.

State Affairs has jurisdiction over the PUCT.

"We would be much better served if we had a single, full-time, appointed Commissioner to replace the current three member structure," Cook said during a Sunset Advisory Commission meeting yesterday.

Cook said his proposal resulted from working on the resource adequacy issue for the past year.

"I've become very frustrated in trying to deal with a three-headed organization where we can't move things forward in a timely manner," Cook said.

Cook said that a single commissioner would establish clear authority and clear accountability.

Cook raised the matter as a new issue which has only recently been raised in the Sunset process. After reluctance from other Sunset Commission members to address the proposal substantively so late in the process, Cook withdrew the issue, but requested that lawmakers consider the matter during this year's legislative session.

The Sunset Commission endorsed several recommendations for new or modified authority which should be granted to the PUCT by legislators.

Among other things, the Sunset Commission recommended that the PUCT's administrative penalty authority should be increased to $100,000 per violation per day for electric industry participants' violations of ERCOT reliability protocols or PUCT wholesale reliability rules.

Additionally, the Sunset Commission recommended that, in limited circumstances, the PUCT should be authorized to issue emergency cease-and-desist orders to electric industry participants. During the Sunset Commission meeting, members agreed to add clarifying language that such emergency authority does not extend to the ability to issue emergency cease-and-desist orders concerning fraudulent activities, as other states agencies with such emergency authority over fraudulent behavior were explicitly granted such emergency powers in statute. The PUCT's emergency cease-and-desist orders are to be limited to matters which, absent the cease-and-desist order, threaten grid reliability or public safety.

The Sunset Commission also said that the PUCT should be able to exercise additional oversight authority of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas by, among other things, reviewing and approving annual budgets for ERCOT on a timeframe determined by PUCT.

Notably, the Sunset Commission said that the ERCOT System Administration Fee should vary when needed to match ERCOT revenues to the budget approved by PUCT.