Recently it was announced that Power To Choose will be launching a new website on May 6th, with the hope that the new site will be “more focused on the shopping experience.” Also, notable is that shoppers will now be able to rate retail electricity providers. Hmm. That sounds familiar. I think there’s another Texas electricity website Continue reading “Power To Choose To Become More Consumer Oriented?” »
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Complaint Scorecard, one of the primary resources for consumers to research Texas electricity providers, is once again out of date.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 advocacy purview of the PUC seems to have taken a backseat to…well…anything but updating their complaint scorecard.
As of today (4/29/13), the Complaint Scorecard hasn’t been updated since February 28th. That means that they’re more than one month late on updating their complaint scorecard for Texas electricity providers. And the latest data for consumers is more than two months old. If the PUC were updating it according to schedule, we’d have had the March scorecard posted at the beginning of this month, and we’d be days away from the release of April’s scorecard. But there’s no telling when they’ll actually get around to updating it. And now that summer temperatures are starting to creep into Texas, and a majority of people will be doing their shopping for new electricity providers, customers need the latest data more than ever to help them make informed decisions.
Of course, this isn’t the first time in recent memory that the PUC has been tardy with their scorecard. I’ve previously written about overarching issues in November of 2012, January of 2013, and February 25th of 2013. That means that outside of December (where I possibly missed it because of the holidays), the complaint scorecard hasn’t been updated on time in almost 6 months.
Ironically, the last time they updated their complaint scorecard was 3 days after the last article I wrote calling them out for failuring to keep it regularly refreshed. Coincidence? I guess we’ll see when they get around to updating it again this time. One thing is certain, however. It’s difficult to give the PUC any kind of grade other than “F” for their efforts on the scorecard to date.
UPDATE: After my post this morning, coincidentally, no doubt, the PUC updated everything for March about 2 hours later. It only took 29 days and one public question to get there.
When it comes to media coverage, It just keeps getting more and more interesting for Texas electricity company Energy Future Holdings this week. First was the news that that the company formerly known at TXU was buying time to pursue bankruptcy deals for their various subsidiaries. That is huge news, but if that wasn’t enough Continue reading “Energy Future Holdings News Dump – 4/18/2013” »
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 news is completely absurd: Continue reading “Generators Claiming They Can’t Make A Profit is Nonsense” »
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 of Texas continues to shrink, and as the PUC’s efforts to lure new generation to date have failed, Continue reading “Donna Nelson On Residential Customer Demand Response” »
I’ve written before about my concerns about how Texas electricity companies are selling electricity plans at a loss, and I’ve written before about my thoughts on electricity companies potentially going out of business during summer months. Now, I’d like to take a look at something based on both of those concerns combining to cause Continue reading “Is There an Texas Electricity Market Bubble?” »
Last week Bounce Energy ask me if I’d like to take their newest product for a test drive and give my thoughts. My first reaction, was “Why does a new plan need a test drive?” That confusion was cleared up in short order. Bounce’s newest addition to the Texas electricity market is a “Build Your Own Electricity Plan.” Are you intrigued? Well, in my opinion, you should be, because I thought this was the coolest thing I’ve seen in the Texas electricity market in years. Lets break down how it works below. Continue reading “Bounce Energy’s New Build Your Own Electricity Plan” »
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.” Or “I don’t see the electricity provider that I’m interested in listed on the PUC’s page. What gives?” I wrote an article in early November about some serious flaws and confusing inconsistencies in how the PUC updates and lists the Texas retail electricity providers (REPs) in their complaint scorecard in attempt to address some of these FAQs. I then posted an update in early January pointing out that yet again the PUC had fallen behind and failed to update their complaint scorecard. I’m not sure what the problem is, but Continue reading “PUC Continues to Drop Ball on Consumer Advocacy?” »
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 Commission (PUC) of Texas. Fines are nothing new to REPs, and having waded through much of the PURA documentation myself, I honestly think most REPs are probably inadvertently breaking a rule or two every now and then without even realizing they are doing such. So to see REPs getting fined isn’t necessarily a big deal…but that depends on WHY they’re being fined. So lets take a closer look at two different fines issued this week and analyze which exactly Continue reading “Texas Electricity Fines: What Do The Fines Mean?” »
Per the Wall Street Journal, Energy Future Holdings (parent company to TXU, Oncor, and Luminant) formerly known as TXU Corp., has hired restructuring lawyers at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, according to people familiar to the matter. Speculation about the financial woes of Energy Future Holdings has been rampant for years now, and I’ve written about their financial status myself, as well as what might happen to the Texas electricity market if TXU goes bankrupt. Well, it looks like the next domino in this process is about to fall, and Texans should be aware of what this potentially means to them as customers. Continue reading “More Signs Pointing to Imminent EFH/TXU Bankruptcy” »