PUC Rules Electric Companies Can’t Alter Fixed Price Rates
After the PUC voted to raise the market cape earlier this summer (with more cap raises coming in upcoming years), there were a lot of concerns about whether or not Texas electricity companies would...
View ArticleERCOT Has Optimistic Look on Electricity Generation Futures
Per Paul Ring at Energy Choice Matters, ERCOT is forecasting healthier generation reserves for 2014 and beyond, which has been a major concern facing Texas for the past couple years. Anyone reading...
View ArticlePUC To Implement Smart-meter Opt-Out Plan
The PUC announced last week that they’d be coming up with an opt-out program for Smart Meters. This isn’t surprising, given the natural Independence of Texans in general, and some people have had...
View ArticleTexas Electricity News & Notes 1/10/2013
There were a couple of news items that hit the Texas electricity market this week. Neither of them on their own require enough analysis to warrant an entire blog post, so I’m going to stick them...
View ArticleUPDATE 1/10/2013: PUC Complaint Scorecard Still Needs Some Work
A couple months back I spoke with the PUC, on a story linked here, regarding the PUC’s handling of their self-trumpeted ratings system for REPs. When I started asking questions, they quickly turned...
View ArticleTexas Electricity Fines: What Do The Fines Mean?
On Monday I saw a couple of different notes over at Energy Choice Matters, both of which discussed a couple of Retail Electricity Providers (REPs) that have been levied fines by the Public Utilities...
View ArticlePUC Continues to Drop Ball on Consumer Advocacy?
I revieve reader questions on a regular basis about how the PUC handles their ranking system. The general thrust is “I see there is a state rankings system for Texas electricity, but it looks dated.”...
View ArticleDonna Nelson On Residential Customer Demand Response
I’ve been fairly critical of the PUC in recent posts, but recently Donna Nelson did speak out on something that I do actually agree with…or at the very least, it seems fair. As the generation capacity...
View ArticleGenerators Claiming They Can’t Make A Profit is Nonsense
This won’t be a long post. I saw an article this morning that NRG is purchasing a power generation plan in Corpus Christi for 244 million dollars. You can read about the details: here. Here’s why this...
View ArticleUPDATED: For the PUC Complaint Scorecard, the PUC Continues to Score an “F”
The PUC Complaint Scorecard, one of the primary resources for consumers to research Texas electricity providers, is once again out of date. Sadly, this isn’t much of a surprise, since the consumer...
View ArticleRisings Costs – Your Electricity Company Has Little Choice In the Matter
It was a known fact that electricity rates would take a substantial hike after Donna Nelson and the PUC approved an increase in the market cap last summer. And I’ve been steadily watching those rates...
View ArticleTexas Electricity and Capacity Markets: A Primer
The agenda by the power generators who create Texas electricity for a Capacity Market is being pushed harder and harder these days, and it looks like things might be coming to a head. This article by...
View ArticleMore on Texas Electricity & Capacity Markets
The debate over capacity markets and whether or not they will become a model for Texas electricity continues to rage. I’ve already given you my thoughts on a Capacity market in my primer on the...
View ArticleProton Energy Should Be Set Ablaze
The PUC is petitioning the commissioners of the PUC to revoke the license of Proton Energy. Why you ask? Oh, well, about 1,000 violations of the PURA/Commission rules since 2011. No, that is not an...
View ArticleExcellent Op-Ed Against a Capacity Electricity Market in Texas
The debate for Capacity Markets in the Texas electricity space is fixing to heat up. I stumbled across this excellent article about the fallacies driving the debate for introducing a capacity market in...
View ArticleTexas Electricity Complaints Continue to Decline
Customer complaints in the Texas electricity market have declined for the fourth straight year, as reported by multiple news outlets including the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram. Complaints are once again the...
View ArticlePUC Commissioner Slams StarTex Power
Apparently in a recent case before the PUC, Commissioner Kenneth Anderson had some choice words for the customer service at StarTex Power. Pitiful, to be specific. Anderson said that, “I think...
View ArticleCapacity Market Criticism: A Texas Electricity Link Dump 12/3/13
There’s been so much in the way of Texas electricity news the past few weeks that it’s difficult to summarize and document it all in a single post. Additionally, there is so much overlap that it...
View ArticlePUC to Vote on Important “Small Fish” Texas Electricity Exemption Rule
ERCOT is set to vote on an amendment to a rule that is commonly known as the “Small Fish Swim Free” market exemption. As much as that might not sound like a big deal, this vote actually should have...
View ArticleExcellent DMN Article Highlights Confusion in Texas Electricity Shopping
In a recent article in the Dallas Morning News, Mitchell Schnurman does an outstanding job of highlighting several of the existing challenges with navigating the Texas electricity market. As someone...
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