Texas Retail Provider To Pay $12,500 Under Settlement With PUCT Staff

Texpo Power LP would pay $12,500 under a settlement with the Staff of the Public Utility Commission of Texas to resolve alleged violations of 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 USA [User Security Administrators] and Certificate Holders. The Market Participant, through its USA or another authorized third party, shall perform an audit by reviewing the list and noting any inconsistencies or instances of noncompliance (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, Texpo holds the following registration types: Congestion Revenue Right Account Holder, Counterparty, Qualified Scheduling Entity, and Load Serving Entity.

As such, Texpo was required to file four DCAAs by October 1, 2015 for calendar year 2015 compliance, the settlement states.

According to the settlement, Texpo submitted its calendar year 2015 DCAAs to ERCOT on January 25, 2016, "and as such, these DCAAs were not timely filed."

Regarding the DCAAs for 2016, the settlement states, "Texpo initially submitted one DCAA meant to cover all four registrations on January 23, 2017."

"This filing was rejected by ERCOT on February 13, 2017 because the Protocols required a filing for each registration number, and Texpo submitted the four required DCAAs later that day. Texpo's calendar year 2016 DCAAs were not timely filed," the settlement states

The settlement states that, previously, on January 2, 2015, Commission Staff issued a warning letter to Texpo regarding a failure to submit DCAAs for calendar year 2013.

Texpo has implemented various measures to ensure DCAAs are timely filed in the future

Texpo timely filed its 2017 DCAAs on September 5, 2017, the settlement states

Docket 47733