Texas TDUs Seek Waiver From Reporting Regs For Retail Market Performance Measures

Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC, Centerpoint Energy Houston Electric, LLC, and Texas-New Mexico Power Company ("Petitioners") have filed a petition at the Texas PUC for a waiver of certain performance measures reporting requirements related to the retail market

The TDUs said that, "Since the time that the Performance Measures Reporting Form was adopted over a decade ago, the retail electric market in Texas has matured and changed substantially, especially with the deployment of advanced meters. The Commission, by rule, significantly restructured the TDU Pro-Forma Retail Delivery Tariff to reflect the deployment of advanced meters, creating three different types of service, timelines, and charges for the various types of meters that were in place."

"However, the Performance Metrics Reporting Form was not correspondingly revised and, in its current state, is not consistent with the restructured Pro-Forma Tariff. During discussions among TDUs and PUC staff, it has become clear that it is impractical to adapt the current form to the restructured tariff," the TDUs said

"It is Petitioners understanding that Commission Staff intends to initiate a future project to review and update the Performance Measures Reporting Form. Accordingly, until that project has been completed and a revised Performance Metrics Reporting Form is in effect, Petitioners are requesting they be granted a waiver of certain filing requirements pursuant to 16 TAC §25.88(e)(4)," the TDUs said

"The existing Performance Measures Reporting Form does not map to the current Pro-Forma Tariff in a straight-forward, one-for-one match. For example, the existing Form was developed based on the field activity (for example, standard move-in) having one timeline. In today' s Tariff, there are three different subsections for move-ins (standard, non-standard/unmetered and AMS-M), with two or three different timelines. Another example is re-reads. When the existing Form was developed, meter re-read timelines applied to all meter types. In today's Pro-Forma Tariff, the meter re-read timeline applies only to non-standard meters, which is usually such a small number for each Petitioner that missing even one could result in a significant adverse impact on the performance metric, but is not an accurate representation of how well that Petitioner is performing on the whole. This Petition is being filed due to these inconsistencies; Attachment A sets out in detail the specifics of the requested waiver, and Attachment B provides a marked-up version of the existing Performance Measure C filing form," the TDUs said

Regardless of the misalignment of the tariff and form, the TDUs also sought a waiver of reporting information that was better provided by other entities and/or no longer necessary due to the maturity of the market.

For example, TDUs sought a waiver from reporting on "competitive market indicators" under 16 TAC §25.88(d)

"The intent of these Measures, as stated in 16 TAC §25.88(d), is to assess the 'level and strength of retail competition by the number of retail electric providers and products available in the restructured electric market. These measures will allow the commission to assess the activity in the competitive market through the number of customers and corresponding load served by non-affiliated REPs [retail electric providers] and the number of active REPs.' The current Performance Metrics Reporting Form requires the Electric Reliability Council of Texas ('ERCOT'), REPs and TDUs to all file significant amounts of data. Given the maturity of the market and the strength of retail competition in the market as evidenced by the number of active REPs and products offered, then it is sufficient for reporting purposes for ERCOT and the REPS, as the primary source for the data, to provide their required data, and if the Commission requires additional information from any of the Petitioners, the Commission can request that directly," the TDUs said

Docket 49301