Texas Market Participant To Pay $10,000 Under Settlement With PUCT Staff

Victoria Electric Cooperative, Inc. would pay $10,000 under a settlement with Staff of the Texas PUC to settle alleged violations of Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) Protocols § 16.12.3, concerning market participant audits of user security administrators and digital certificates.

ERCOT Protocols § 16.12.3(1) states that "[d]uring September of each year, each Market Participant shall generate a list of its registered [User Security Administrator] and Certificate Holders. The Market Participant, through its User Security Administrator or another authorized third party, shall perform an audit by reviewing the list and noting any inconsistencies or instances of non-compliance (including, for example, any Certificate Holder that may have changed job functions and no longer requires the Digital Certificate)."

ERCOT Protocols § 16.12.3(2) states that each market participant is required to submit to ERCOT an attestation of compliance based on that audit (a Digital Certificate Audit Attestation or DCAA) by October 1 of each year. Attestations must be completed for each market participant type (e.g., counterparty, qualified scheduling entity, load serving entity, etc.).

According to the settlement, Victoria Electric failed to timely submit its calendar year 2015 DCAA filings and calendar year 2016 DCAA filings.

According to the settlement, previously, on December 5, 2014, Commission Staff issued a warning letter to Victoria Electric regarding a failure to submit DCAAs for calendar year 2013.