Texas TDU Activates Catastrophic Estimation Process (CEP) For Meters In Certain Areas

"Due to updated outage restoration timelines," AEP Texas said in a market notice, sent at approximately 7:51 a.m. on September 15, that it has decided to implement the Catastrophic Estimation Process (CEP) for the counties listed below.

CEP is used by AEP Texas during outage events to prevent estimating usage for premises during which a meter was without power. Any impacts to usage data will begin with the September 14, 2021 usage date and until CEP has been de-activated.

While not unexpected given conditions, the CEP activation for some counties is notable because AEP Texas had earlier said in a September 14 market notice, sent at approximately 1:32 p.m., that CEP had not been initiated at such time, and that, as of such time, AMS LSE data was to reflect normal operations.

In the September 15 notice, AEP Texas noted that there are no changes/impacts to Service Orders – MVI/MVO, DNP, RCN, etc – will remain business as usual.

CEP was activated for the following counties:

• Calhoun

• Colorado

• Matagorda

• Refugio

• Wharton

Counties covering the impacted cities/towns listed below:

• Palacios

• Port Lavaca

• Matagorda

• Wadsworth

• Markham

• Bay City (and immediate surrounding area)

•El Campo

CEP is used by AEP Texas during outage events to prevent estimating usage for premises during which a meter was without power.

If the meter maintains communications while CEP is active, the MDM will operate as normal and usage data will be sent to market as normal through the daily LSE files to ERCOT and Smart Meter Texas.

However, if the meter loses communications while CEP is active, MDM will populate Zero-Actual usage data for periods of non-communication within the daily LSE files that are sent to ERCOT and Smart Meter Texas.

Once communication is restored, AEP Texas will initiate the Gap Fill Retrieval process and attempt to retrieve any available usage data stored at the meter for up to 5 days.

If any Actual meter data is retrieved via Gap Fill Retrieval, recovered usage data will replace any previous CEP Zero-actual intervals and will be sent in a re-versioned LSE file to ERCOT and Smart Meter Texas.

Once an outage situation is resolved, AEP Texas will de-activate CEP and estimation processes will return to normal.