Texas PUC Formally Approves New Requirements For Smart Meter Texas

The Public Utility Commission of Texas at its May 25 meeting formally voted to adopt a written order on new business requirements for Smart Meter Texas (SMT) and directed that an order be prepared approving such changes

As first reported by EnergyChoiceMatters.com earlier this month, Commissioners had agreed on new business requirements for Smart Meter Texas (SMT), and had directed that an order be prepared approving such changes, at its May 10 meeting

Chief among the changes approved by the PUCT is a new process by which a customer affirms an agreement to share its SMT data with a Competitive Service Provider ("CSP", an entity other than the REP of Record).

Under this new process for providing CSPs with access to SMT, the customer will no longer be required to establish an SMT account before being able to share his or her SMT data with a CSP.

See our prior story for more details on this process (The PUCT adopted the process set forth by settling parties without modification)

The PUCT also set a 12-month limit on the time that a residential or small commercial customer's authorization provided to a third-party (who isn't the REP of record) remains valid for such third party to access the customer's Smart Meter Texas data.

The term smaller commercial customer as used here means a commercial customer whose maximum monthly kilowatt-hours (kWh) for the prior 12 months is less than 15,000 kWh

The PUCT also, "reluctantly," granted a waiver to the SMT TDUs of Tex. Admin. Code § 25.130(g)(1)(J), a rule which requires that an AMS system shall provide or support the capability to communicate with devices inside the premises, including, but not limited to, usage monitoring devices, load control devices, and prepayment systems through a home-area network ('HAN') based upon standards and protocols that comply with nationally recognized non-proprietary standards such as ZigBee, Home-Plug, or the equivalent

The waiver was granted on the presence of an adequate substitute of similar functionalities under the revised SMT (enhanced on-demand reads, for example), and since the TDUs will continue to support existing HAN devices (through their own AMS systems and not SMT 2.0). The waiver was not granted on economic grounds, Chairman DeAnn Walker had stressed at the May 10 meeting

In a draft that was approved as a final order, "The Commission clarifies that the utilities may not discontinue supporting a customer's existing HAN device unless the customer requests that the HAN device be disconnected from the customer's meter. The Commission highlights that the decision to disconnect an existing HAN device from the customer's meter is the customer's choice, not the utility's."

The PUCT also approved revised business requirements for SMT as included in a settlement filed by parties

Docket 47472