Texas Electricity News & Notes – 7/10/2012

by | Jul 10, 2012 | Industry News

There’s been a couple bigger articles written recently that I plan on tackling in the next few days, but in the meantime I wanted to throw out a handful of articles I saw and wanted to mention, but on their own probably didn’t warrant their own posts. So here’s what’s going on in the Texas electricity market:

TXU Energy Launches Their Beat The Heat Sweepstakes – TXU Energy has launched a new sweepstakes that will have Texas Residents looking to cash in on the summer heat. Here are the details of this social media driven contest:

The TXU Energy Beat the Heat Sweepstakes has a jackpot that will grow each day by the amount of the state’s hottest temperature. That means a 99-degree day will put $99 in the prize. The pot will keep growing until Sept. 29, not to exceed $10,000, with each daily high temperature determined by the temperatures reported by the National Weather Service.

Texans who are 18 or older can enter the Beat the Heat Sweepstakes once each day of the sweepstakes through one of six avenues:

Become a new customer. By signing up for any TXU Energy service plan, new customers will automatically be entered one time. (This method is available once during the contest to new residential customers only. Customers renewing or transferring TXU Energy services are not eligible to enter via this method.)

Enter via Facebook. Like us on facebook.com/txuenergy and then click on the Sweepstakes tab to find and complete the online entry form and click “Submit.”

Visit txu.com/beattheheat. Point your Internet browser to our website and fill out the online entry form for another entry.

Join the Twitter conversation. Follow @TXUEnergy on Twitter through at least Oct. 5 and tell us at least once how you beat the heat in Texas in a tweet that includes @TXUEnergy and #TXUEbeattheheat.

Send us a picture on Instagram. To get another entry, share at least one picture that you have taken that shows how you beat the heat. Tag the photo @txuenergy and use #TXUEbeattheheat.

Use traditional mail. Instructions are available via txu.com/beattheheat.

No purchase is necessary to win the sweepstakes. Visit txu.com/beattheheat for the official rules.

Dallas Morning News Writer Thinks Electricity Belongs in the Kitchen, not Cars – In what was almost certainly a slightly sarcastic and tongue-in-cheek comment, Terry Box of the DMN said:

“Electricity belongs in the kitchen, beating pancake batter into gooey submission,”

The article was in an Box’s review of the Mistubishi i-MiEV electric car. Another humorous quote:

“What in blazes do you wear while driving a vehicle that looks like a cross between a tipsy French police car and a giant computer mouse – a significant consideration in fashion-obsessed Dallas?”

Tell us how you really feel, Terry.

TNMP files to reduce discretionary charges to REPs – Somewhat odd that these charges are being reduced for REPs, since I just assumed those were pass-through charges that went directly to the customer (and in most or all instances, I’m sure that is how the REPs operate), but lowered charges and fees is inevitably good news for customers, so this is a great thing. TNMP is lowering this charge as part of the benefit for the rolling out of their advanced metering systems (Smart Meters).

That’s all for today. Hopefully everyone is having a good week thus far.

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