TXU To Pay $91,000 Under Settlement With Texas PUC Staff -- EnergyChoiceMatters.com

TXU To Pay $91,000 Under Settlement With Texas PUC Staff

May 7, 2024

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Copyright 2010-24 EnergyChoiceMatters.com
Reporting by Paul Ring • ring@energychoicematters.com

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TXU Energy Retail Company LLC (TXU) would pay $91,500 under a settlement with Staff of the Public Utility Commission of Texas to resolve TXU's alleged violations of 16 TAC § 25.483(j), related to disconnection of service.

Under 16 TAC § 25.483(j), a REP having disconnection authority shall not authorize a disconnection for nonpayment of electric service for any customer in a county in which an extreme weather emergency occurs, with extreme weather emergency further defined by the rule

The settlement states, "From June 15, 2023, through September 6, 2023, TXU requested the disconnection for nonpayment of electric service for 113 customers located in counties affected by extreme weather emergencies as defined in 16 TAC § 25.483(j) to be completed during the pendency of the emergency."

The settlement states that the transmission and distribution utilities that received TXU’s requested disconnections for nonpayment did not complete any of the requested disconnections, and no customer was actually disconnected.

The settlement states that TXU asserts that it has implemented the following protective measures to prevent future potential violations of 16 TAC § 25.483(j) from occurring, and will continuously work to implement measures designed to prevent errors going forward:

a. TXU has recently completed a process automation designed to add an additional moratorium protection in its systems based on NWS extreme weather alerts and data. This new control is designed to reduce the opportunity for human error and to shorten the time between receiving an NWS extreme weather alert and stopping the system-generated disconnection for nonpayment orders to further reduce inadvertent issuance of such orders. The process involves automating the key stroke steps utilized to transfer the NWS moratorium county data to the TXU operations system issuing disconnect orders, to effectuate a quicker response to the extreme weather alerts and reduce possible manual errors stemming from data transfers.
b. Every business day prior to issuance of disconnect orders, TXU conducts a review of communications from each TDU (which is a manual process) to flag counties that have been designated as having a heat advisory or the previous day's highest temperature did not exceed 32 degrees Fahrenheit, and the temperature is predicted to remain at or below that level for the next 24 hours anywhere in the county, according to the nearest NWS reports. All counties identified in these reviews are compared against the NWS extreme weather alerts to identify and address any discrepancies prior to flagging them in the TXU system to prevent the creation and issuance of a disconnection for nonpayment request for ESIIDs in those counties.
c. Starting in January 2023, TXU executes a computer query every ten minutes to actively monitor NWS heat advisories to begin adjusting processes as early as possible.
d. TXU also independently conducts a daily manual review of the NWS site prior to issuance of any disconnect orders to determine if conditions for an extreme weather emergency have already been met within the state and, if so, to determine any counties that would be excluded from disconnections for nonpayment after the effective date and time of that moratorium.
e. TXU holds issuance of all disconnection for nonpayment orders upon receipt of notice of an extreme weather moratorium to allow time to add moratorium protection into TXU's systems and ensure orders are not going to the TDUs after such notification.
f. TXU also monitors the TDU and NWS communications throughout the day whenever issued as an additional control designed to identify any counties added throughout the day.
g. Beginning in June 2023, TXU initiated a process to issue reconnect orders to immediately cancel inadvertently issued disconnection for nonpayment orders when such inadvertent order is identified.
h. TXU has implemented multiple calendar reminders for relevant team members to confirm disconnection functionality is deactivated in TXU’s system when there are active disconnection moratoriums to prevent the inadvertent issuance of disconnection for nonpayment orders.
i. TXU has also added manual reconciliation steps designed to ensure county names match between NWS alerts and disconnection for nonpayment holds implemented in the system.

The settlement further states that TXU will implement the following protective measures to further prevent future potential violations 16 TAC § 25.483(j):

a. Disconnection of non-advanced metering system-remote (AMSR) meters involves a truck roll and TXU previously issued those orders separately from disconnection orders for AMSR meters that can be disconnected remotely. TXU is working with its IT team to combine disconnection for nonpayment jobs for AMSR meters and non-AMSR meters to reduce process complexity and chance of manual error. TXU Energy currently expects the testing and implementation to be completed by May 31, 2024.

Docket 56560

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