Texas PUC Advances Competitive Service Tariff at Entergy

The Public Utility Commission of Texas yesterday adjudicated two outstanding issues regarding the proposed competitive generation service tariff at Entergy Texas, but withheld final adjudication of remaining issues until the next open meeting.

As previously reported, the competitive generation service tariff at Entergy Texas would only be available to Large Industrial Power Service (LIPS) customers with a minimum load of 5 MW, with no aggregation of load to reach that threshold. The total competitive generation service load will be capped at 115 MW, and supply may only be procured from Qualifying Facilities.

See prior story for more details on the program

Yesterday, the Commission ruled on several issues which had not been settled by the parties.

Among these were Entergy Texas's tariff language which would have allowed the Entergy operating committee to reject capacity contracts associated with competitive generation service applications if the Entergy system was deemed by the Entergy operating committee to not require such capacity.

Texas Commissioners agreed that this operating committee proviso is inconsistent with the Texas statute requiring Entergy Texas to offer the competitive generation service tariff, and said that it should not be part of the program. Commissioners also said that granting the Entergy operating committee such authority to effectively reject competitive generation service applications is inconsistent with a prior partial stipulation signed by Entergy Texas concerning the program.

Additionally, the Texas Commissioners agreed that the tariff should not, at this time, address any potential changes to the competitive generation service tariff which may or may not be necessitated should Entergy Texas join the Midwest ISO.

Commissioners wanted additional time to review one of the remaining issues, which is recovery of any unrecovered costs due to the competitive generation service program. As the PUCT had previously ruled that these unrecovered costs do not include lost revenues, these are largely administrative costs, and one of the remaining questions is recovery of such costs if no customers take the competitive generation service tariff.

Commissioners expressed a desire to quickly complete approval of the competitive generation service tariff, and said that they would be prepared to expeditiously address any implementation disputes which may arise after tariff approval so the program can be begin as quickly as possibly.