This Texas Electricity Bill Would Ban Penalties for Using too Little

This Texas Electricity Bill Would Ban Penalties for Using too Little

March 9, 2015

by Margarita Fournier; Copyright 2015 by Competitive Assets, LLC.  All rights reserved

The 3/9/15 Houston Chronicle reports on Rep. Turner’s bill to prohibit Retail Electric Providers from charging certain penalties for insufficient power use. “The bill would ban REPs from charging “minimum use fees” to customers whose monthly electricity consumption falls below thresholds set by electric companies. It also would prohibit electric providers from offering credits to customers whose monthly electricity usage goes beyond a particular threshold. Both policies, critics say, discourage conservation at a time when environmental advocates, state and local governments and even electric companies themselves are urging customers to reduce their daily electricity usage.” “We’re asking people to conserve and not just use more and more electricity,” said state Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, the bill’s sponsor. “These run counter to that objective.” A recent study found that “at least 218 plans contained provisions that penalized low electricity consumption or rewarded high consumption. At least 34 of the 49 electric providers serving the Houston area offered one or more plans with those fees or credits.” Rep. Turner’s bill is House Bill 2253, relating to a report by the PUCT on retail electric service minimum usage fees and usage credits.

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