Texas Consumer Advocates Seek To Extend Requirement For REPs To Offer Deferred Payment Plans To All Customers

In comments to the Public Utility Commission of Texas, Texas ROSE (Ratepayers' Organization to Save Energy) and Texas Legal Services Center (TLSC) generally proposed that Texas retail electric providers be required to extend, to all residential customers, the ability to enter into a deferred payment plan in certain months, as more specifically described below

ROSE and TLSC' comments came in a rulemaking concerning changes to customer protections as a result of the Lite-Up Texas low-income discount program ending. As previously reported, the PUC has proposed requiring that retail electric providers provide all residential customers with the ability to pay any required deposit that exceeds $50 in two installments. Under current rule, only customers eligible for the Lite-Up Texas discount are eligible to pay any deposit that exceeds $50 in two equal installments.

In the same manner, ROSE and TLSC generally sought to extend the requirement for a REP to offer a deferred payment plan to all residential customers.

Currently, apart from Lite-Up customers and critical/chronic customers, REPs must also offer a deferred payment plan for bills that come due in certain months to any residential customer who has expressed an inability to pay unless the customer:

(I) has been disconnected during the preceding 12 months;

(II) has submitted more than two payments during the preceding 12 months that were found to have insufficient funds available; or

(III) has received service from the REP for less than three months, and the customer lacks: sufficient credit; or a satisfactory history of payment for electric service from a previous REP or utility.

A REP is also not required to offer a deferred payment plan if the customer is on an existing deferred, level, or average payment plan.

ROSE and TLSC propose that, for the currently applicable months, REPs would be required to offer a deferred payment plan to all residential customers, striking conditions (I) through (III) listed above for which REPs are currently not obligated to offer a deferred payment plan. Under the ROSE/TLSC proposal, REPs would not be required to offer a deferred payment plan if the customer is on an existing deferred, level, or average payment plan; except that, REPs would be required to offer critical/chronic care customers a deferred payment plan even if such customers are on an existing deferred, level, or average payment plan

In separately filed comments, the Texas Coalition for Affordable Power proposed that reporting requirements pertaining to REP bill payment assistance programs, as described under section (n) of the proposed rules, should be expanded and amended such that REPs also should be required to disclose the total amount of company donations that it has pledged to support low-income rate discounts. This disclosure would be in addition to the existing requirement in the proposed rules that the REP disclose the total amount of customer donations pledged for this purpose.

"Disclosed information described in section (n) of the proposed rules should be posted on the state's powertochoose.org website for each certified REP. This website's shopping platform should incorporate this information in an interactive and easy-to-read format, similar to the public posting of Fact Sheets on the website," TCAP said

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