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Texas Retail Provider To Pay $111,000 Under Settlement With Texas PUC Staff
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Value Based Brands LLC (VBB) would pay $111,200 under a settlement with Staff of the Public Utility Commission of Texas to resolve VBB'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 19, 2023, through September 5, 2023, VBB requested the disconnection for nonpayment of electric service for 139 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 VBB’s requested disconnections for nonpayment did not complete any of the requested disconnections, and no customer was actually disconnected.
The settlement states that VBB asserts 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. Every business day prior to issuance of disconnect orders, VBB 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 to prevent the creation and issuance of a disconnection for nonpayment request for ESIIDs in those counties.
b. Previously, VBB batched disconnect orders and issued the batch to the TDU on an hourly basis. VBB completed a process change to issue disconnection for nonpayment orders instantaneously instead of batching prior to the initiation of Commission Staff’s investigation.
c. Previously, VBB monitored the NWS website by having a person periodically review it to identify extreme weather events. VBB has transformed this process into a more systematic control. Specifically, VBB now executes a computer query every ten minutes to actively monitor NWS heat advisories to begin adjusting its system processes as early as possible.
d. VBB independently conducts a daily manual review of the NWS site prior to issuance of any disconnection for nonpayment 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. VBB holds issuance of all disconnections for nonpayment orders upon receipt of notice of an extreme weather moratorium to allow time to add moratorium protection into VBB’s operational processes and ensure orders are not going to the TDUs after such notification. VBB’s procedure stops all disconnection for nonpayment orders until the next day, even for counties not included in the NWS alert.
f. VBB 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. VBB has also added manual reconciliation steps designed to ensure county names match between NWS alerts and disconnection for nonpayment holds implemented in the system.
Docket 56561
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May 7, 2024
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Copyright 2010-24 EnergyChoiceMatters.com
Reporting by Paul Ring • ring@energychoicematters.com
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