Texas PUC Staff Propose Retail Providers Be Required To Send Written Notices To Eligible Customers Concerning Uplift Financing Opt-out, REPs Responsible For Reporting Customer Opt-outs To PUC

Staff of the Texas PUC have proposed that retail electric providers be obligated to provide notice to eligible customers of their ability to opt-out of the program to finance Reliability Deployment Price Adder ("RDPA") charges and Ancillary Service costs above the Commission's system-wide offer cap for the period beginning 12:01 a.m., February 12, 2021, and ending 11:59 p.m., February 20, 2021 (known as "uplift" in the proceeding)

As previously reported, among the entities eligible to opt-out of such financing program (and associated proceeds and cost recovery) are transmission-voltage customers served by a REP.

Staff filed comments recommending various proceedings in the uplift financing docket (52322), including the opt-out

PUC Staff said that, "Because ERCOT does not maintain information at the customer level, a transmission-voltage customer that is served by a REP must notify its REP, and not the Commission, that it is electing to opt out."

"To ensure that each transmission-voltage customer is informed of the right to opt out, each REP must notify these customers in writing," Staff recommended

"If a customer does not respond with a statement affirmatively opting out, then the REP must assume that the customer has elected to opt out [sic]," Staff recommended

"As part of a REP's documentation of exposure, the REP will include a list of transmission-voltage customers that have elected to opt out. The list must include each customer' s ESIID and the contact name, address, and description of the premise corresponding to the ESIID; the calculation of the REP's exposure must exclude any exposure associated with the customers on the list. Staff believes that embedding the opt out process for transmission-voltage customers into the REP's documentation of its exposure in the manner proposed will eliminate the possibility that transmission-voltage customers will inadvertently miss the opportunity to opt out," Staff recommended

Docket 52322