Texas Retail Provider Would Pay $200,000 Under Settlement With PUC Staff

February 28, 2024

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Copyright 2010-23 EnergyChoiceMatters.com
Reporting by Paul Ring • ring@energychoicematters.com

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Young Energy, LLC (Young) would pay a total administrative penalty of $100,000, and also make a total donation of $100,000 to the City of Fort Worth’s Community Action Partners, a charitable organization that provides utility bill payment assistance to low-income individuals, under a settlement with Staff of the Public Utility Commission of Texas to resolve alleged violations of PURA § 39.101(h), 16 TAC §§ 25.483(b)(2)(B), related to disconnection of service, and 25.483(j), related to disconnection of service.

On April 25, 2005, the Commission approved Young’s application for a REP certificate.

Under 16 TAC § 25.483(b)(2)(B), prior to authorizing disconnections for non-payment of residential and small non-residential customers, a REP shall file an affidavit from an officer of the company, in a project established by the Commission for this purpose, affirming that the REP understands and has trained its personnel on the Commission’s rule requirements related to disconnection and reconnection, and has adequately tested all necessary electronic transactions related to disconnections and reconnections of service.

On May 20, 2004, the Commission opened Project No. 29760, which is the project established by the Commission for the filing of affidavits in accordance with 16 TAC § 25.483(b)(2)(B).

The settlement states, "Young did not file the affidavit required under 16 TAC § 25.483(b)(2)(B) in Project No. 29760 until October 6, 2023."

Commission Staff alleged that Young violated 16 TAC § 25.483(b)(2)(B) by failing to file the required affidavit before authorizing disconnections for nonpayment of residential and small non-residential customers.

Under PURA § 39.101(h), a REP may not disconnect service to a residential customer during an extreme weather emergency or on a weekend day. Under 16 TAC § 25.483(j), a REP having disconnection authority under the provision of subsection (b) of that section shall not authorize a disconnection for nonpayment of electric service for any customer in a county in which an extreme weather emergency, as defined by the rule, occurs.

Commission Staff alleged that from November 1, 2020, through September 1, 2022, Young requested the disconnection for nonpayment of electric service for 1,819 customers located in counties affected by extreme weather emergencies to be completed during the pendency of the emergency.

Commission Staff alleged that the transmission and distribution utilities that allegedly received Young’s requested disconnections for nonpayment did not complete any of the requested disconnections, and no customer was actually disconnected.

Commission Staff alleged that Young violated PURA § 39.101(h) and 16 TAC § 25.483(j) when it requested 1,819 disconnections for non-payment during extreme weather emergencies to be completed during the pendency of the emergencies for ESI IDs in counties affected by the emergencies.

The settlement states that Young asserts it has implemented the following protective measures to prevent future potential violations of PURA § 39.101(h) and 16 TAC § 25.483(j) from occurring, and will continue to implement such measures going forward:

a. "Young has devoted significant resources to ensure it does not issue disconnection requests during weather moratoriums. During 2020, Young’s customer information system underwent a major enhancement intended to prevent the release of disconnection requests during weather moratoriums (including automatic retrieval and interpretation of NWS Advisories, text interpretation, set up of weather moratoriums by TDU and county, and the functions needed to intercept any applicable DNP orders to be otherwise submitted to the market). The vast majority of the reported occurrences happened in the summer of 2021. This was one of the first opportunities for Young to test its customer information system to determine whether it was functioning as intended after the major enhancements to the system beginning in 2020 as described above. After the overhaul, the occurrence rates were quite small by comparison."

b. "Following the extreme weather event between July 26, 2021 and August 3, 2021, there was another review and overhaul of the customer information system, and Young continued to find and close loopholes in the system to protect consumers and to automatically establish weather moratoriums (which block any disconnection requests)."

c. "Young has continuously spent resources and time developing its customer information system to be perfected without Commission direction."

The settlement states that Young will implement the following protective measures to further prevent future potential violations of PURA § 39.101(h) and 16 TAC § 25.483(j):

a. "Young has made changes in responsibilities to elevate the importance of complying with the rules related to disconnection of service. An officer of the company will directly oversee the process for establishing weather moratoriums in its systems, reporting on the status of the systems going into a disconnection cycle, and immediate reconnection if any mistakes are made. Additional manual procedures are also under the auspices of the company officer."

b. "Young will continue its participation in the Retail Market Subcommittee Market Coordination Team for Texas SET Version Releases. Young will continue to advocate for Texas SET 5.0 to be implemented as soon as possible. Texas SET 5.0 will allow for the exchange of county information from the TDU to Young and other REPs during enrollment. This is expected to vastly improve the accuracy of county assignments in Young’s systems."

c. "Young will also add more functions and additional new reports to its systems to improve data accuracy and reconnection speed when an inadvertent disconnection request is sent during a weather moratorium. Reports will be designed to better assist in backup manual procedures and data cleanups."

The settlement states that should Young request any disconnections for nonpayment during an extreme weather emergency to be completed during the pendency of the emergency going forward, Young will take all actions necessary to ensure that the disconnections are not completed, including submission of precautionary reconnect orders.

The settlement states that, "Young neither admits to nor denies the allegations of violations detailed in [the settlement]"

The settlement provides that each $100,000 payment required under the settlement shall be made in eight installments of $12,500 each

Docket 56246

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