Texas Retail Provider To Pay $35,000 Under Settlement With PUC Staff -- EnergyChoiceMatters.com

Texas Retail Provider To Pay $35,000 Under Settlement With PUC Staff

April 22, 2022

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Reporting by Paul Ring • ring@energychoicematters.com

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Gexa Energy, LP would pay $35,000 under a settlement with Staff of the Texas PUC to resolve alleged violations of 16 TAC § 25.479(c)(1)(N)(i) concerning the requirement to include "previous meter read" and "current meter read" data on customer bills for certain Time of Use customers

Under 16 TAC § 25.479(c)(1)(N)(i), each retail electric customer’s bill must include the meter reading at the beginning of the period for which the customer is being billed, labeled "previous meter read," and the meter reading at the end of the period for which the customer is being billed, labeled "current meter read," and the dates of such readings, if the bill is based on kilowatt-hour (kWh) usage and if the information is available to the REP on a standard electronic transaction

The settlement states that, during the period in question Gexa had approximately 5,076 customers enrolled in time-of-use (TOU) service plans, which utilize "smart meters" to bill customers per kWh at prices that vary based on the time or date that the energy is consumed.

The settlement states that, during each billing cycle, information regarding a TOU customer’s previous meter read and current meter read is available to Gexa through a standard electronic transaction.

The settlement states that, prior to the January 2021 billing cycle, billing invoices provided by Gexa to its TOU customers included the customer’s "previous meter read" and "current meter read" information.

The settlement states that, during the January 2021 billing cycle, Gexa migrated its TOU customers to a new billing software platform.

The settlement states that, beginning in the February 2021 billing cycle and following the migration of TOU customer information to the new billing software platform, billing invoices issued to Gexa customers enrolled in TOU plans ceased to include the "previous meter read" and "current meter read" information, despite this information being available to Gexa.

According to the settlement, Gexa asserts that, while billing invoices issued from the new billing platform did not include the "previous meter read" and "current meter read" information, the billing invoices did include the total TDU-reported kWh usage during each billing cycle.

According to the settlement, Gexa asserts that the removal of "previous meter read" and "current meter read" information from invoices issued to its TOU customers was inadvertent and resulted from a formatting error caused by the migration of Gexa’s TOU customers to the new billing software platform.

According to the settlement, Gexa asserts that the absence of the requisite meter read values did not affect billing invoice accuracy, and customers were billed in accordance with Gexa’s Terms of Service documents.

According to the settlement, Gexa asserts that, as of its January 2022 billing cycle, the formatting issue in the billing invoices for its TOU customers has been addressed and that all TOU customer billing invoices now include the meter read values required by PURA §§ 17.004(a)(8) and 39.101(a)(3) and 16 TAC § 25.479(c)(1)(N)(i).

Docket 53492

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