Tenaska Proposes Amendment To Texas Re-pricing Bill To Address Ability Of ERCOT To Recoup Monies From Entities Already Paid By QSEs

Tenaska has proposed an amendment to the ERCOT re-pricing bill, SB 2142, recently passed by the Senate to address the ability of ERCOT to recoup money from entities who were already paid by QSEs

See background on the re-pricing under SB 2142 here

Tenaska said in comments to the PUC that, "Simply put, if the ERCOT energy market is repriced for Feb. 18-19 consistent with the recommendations of the ERCOT Independent Market Monitor, there is a risk that ERCOT will be unable to recover a significant portion of the recoupment from QSEs that will be necessary to permit ERCOT to in turn pass that money through to load serving entities, and then consumers."

"Tenaska has drafted an amendment for inclusion Senate Bill 2142 that would address that risk ... The amendment would direct QSEs to hold back from payments to the QSE’s customers an amount corresponding to the repayments to ERCOT that would be required if repricing were ordered. Additionally, for those QSEs that have already paid their customers for that period, the proposed language would permit the QSE to assign to ERCOT the QSE’s rights recoup the money from their Customers and step out of the middleman role," Tenaska said

"[W]e believe the PUCT has the authority to direct QSEs to take action to assure the appropriate amount of money will be available for recoupment by ERCOT if the legislature mandates repricing. Accordingly, we ask that the PUC promptly direct QSEs to take appropriate steps to assure that money will be available for recoupment by ERCOT, in the event the legislature directs repricing," Tenaska said

Tenaska's specific proposed language for the amendment is as follows:

REPRICING EVENT. (a) Any Qualified Scheduling Entity ("QSE") shall withhold payment to its customers of any amount that the QSE determines, in good faith based on the recommendation of the ERCOT Independent Market Monitor, would be subject to recoupment by the QSE from its customer if any retroactive repricing of the ERCOT energy market was imposed for any part of the period from February 18 through February 19, 2021 ("Repricing Event"). Such withheld amount shall be maintained by the QSE in a segregated account, for the benefit of the QSE customer, or ERCOT, as ultimately determined after a final decision on a Repricing Event is made.

(b) Upon any Repricing Event, any QSE that owes a resettlement to ERCOT for energy delivered by a market participant customer and has a recoupment right as against such customer for such resettlement shall have the right but not the obligation to assign such recoupment right to ERCOT.

(c) Upon a QSE’s assignment of such recoupment right, the QSE shall be released and discharged from any obligation to ERCOT to pay such resettlement amount for the energy delivered by such market participant customer.