CenterPoint-TDU Informs Texas Retail Electric Providers Of New CIS Cutover Schedule, Impact On Retail Transactions

CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric (CenterPoint or CNP) informed Texas retail electric providers that it will be performing a phased Customer Information System Conversion beginning Friday, October 4, 2019, through March 2020.

CenterPoint will conduct a Technical Go-Live and a series of six releases that will require downtimes for its transaction processing system, which are limited to weekends only.

"At this time, we are going to focus our communication on Technical Go-Live, and Releases 1 & 2 only," CenterPoint said

For Releases 3 – 6 in early 2020, downtimes will be provided at a later date through Market communications.

The high-level schedule for the Technical Go-Live and Releases 1 & 2 is as follows:

 October 7, 2019 – Technical Go-Live 
      • October 4 - 6, 2019 – Cutover 

October 14, 2019 – Release 1
      • (10,000 ESI-IDs)
      • October 11 - 13, 2019 – Cutover 

October 28, 2019 – Release 2
      • (Approx. 140,000 ESI-IDs) 
      • October 25 - 27, 2019 – Cutover 

For detailed transaction impacts and procedures, please see the Transactional Procedures document available here (linked from an Aug. 27 market notice, this document may not reflect any changes beyond such date).

CenterPoint said that, effective immediately, all TX SET transactions requesting services for the affected Saturdays will be scheduled for the following Monday and will be processed after the migration is complete.

For any transactions already received and scheduled for 10/5, 10/12, or 10/26, the CNP assigned Account Manager will contact each CR and provide available options.

Retail electric providers should see the Transactional Procedures document linked above for various safety net processes and transaction details during the conversion downtimes

For Technical Go-Live Friday, October 4th – Monday, October 7th, during this specific cutover – CRIP, CRIP LOA, DEIS, UHIT, and MarkeTrak will not be available.

For Release 1 - Friday, October 11th – Monday, October 14th and Release 2 - Friday, October 25th – Monday, October 28, during these specific cutovers, there will be no impacts to – CRIP, CRIP LOA, DEIS, UHIT, and MarkeTrak

CenterPoint Energy will provide additional Market Notices prior to each cutover. Each notice will provide detailed transaction instructions, and Market Call information for questions and to ensure that market participants continue to stay informed throughout these migrations.

There will be another CNP CIS Conversion Workshop on September 10, 2019, at 1:00 PM following RMS at the ERCOT Met Center Conference Room 206.

Click here for additional CIS Conversion Information