PUCurrenT-Q1-2025-ENGLISH by puctmedia

PUCurrenT

Public Utility Commission of Texas

GOVERNOR ABBOTT NAMES COURTNEY K. HJALTMAN TO PUCT

Courtney Hjaltman was appointed by Governor Greg Abbott on June 24, 2024, as a Commissioner of the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT), filling the lone vacancy on the five-member Commission. Commissioner Hjaltman previously served as the chief executive and public counsel for the Office of Public Utility Counsel (OPUC). Read more

TEXAS ENERGY FUND APPLICANTS MOVE TO “DUE DILIGENCE” ROUND OF REVIEW

PUCTChair

ThomasJ.Gleeson

Following an overwhelming response to the Public Utility Commission of Texas’ (PUCT) invitation to apply for the Texas Energy Fund’s (TEF) In-ERCOT Generation Loan Program, 17 applicants were advanced by the PUCT to take part in the next round of the loan application review, known as the “due diligence” period. Read more

PUBLIC UTILITY COMMISSION OF TEXAS ADOPTS RELIABILITY STANDARD FOR THE ERCOT MARKET

The Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) voted on August 29 to adopt a reliability standard for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) region. Read more

(L to R: Chair Thomas J. Gleeson, Comms. Lori Cobos, Jimmy Glotfelty, Kathleen Jackson, and Courtney Hjaltman )

COMMISSIONER’S COMMISSIONER’S CORNER CORNER

It’s Your Turn

We’ve heard from state leaders. We’ve heard from CenterPoint Energy. We’ve even heard from Mattress Mack. We heard their near universal anger and frustration that millions of Texans in the Greater Houston area went without power—and information—for days after the May derecho and Hurricane Beryl.

Now it’s time to hear from the most important people in all of this: You, the customers. So, on Saturday, October 5, 2024, my fellow commissioners and I are coming to Houston for a day-long workshop to hear from you, the electric utility customers who lived for days or weeks without power in the sweltering heat.

As many of you know, Gov. Greg Abbott has directed the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) to investigate utility readiness and response to these extreme weather events that tore through the region knocking out power. Critical to our investigation is hearing from those who lived it firsthand. Your stories and experiences will help all of us understand what didn’t work and where things need to get better.

Please mark your calendars for the workshop and join us. Watch our website, puc.texas.gov, and our social media channels for details on start time and location.

For those of you who can’t make it to our workshop, we still need to hear from you —so please visit our homepage and fill out our online survey. We’ve already received more than 16,000 responses. It only takes a few minutes to complete and the information you share could be vital in helping us develop new laws, rules, and procedures to prevent this kind of devastating widespread power outage when extreme weather hits.

It's your turn. Be heard.

Thomas Gleeson

Chairman

LISTEN UP…

Chairman Thomas Gleeson was a guest on Texas Oil & Gas Association’s TXOGA Talks podcast in June. He shared his outlook on summer electricity demand, interest in the Texas Energy Fund and much more. Listen here.

GOVERNOR ABBOTT NAMES COURTNEY K. HJALTMAN TO PUCT

“I want to thank Governor Abbott for his confidence and for the opportunity to continue serving the people of Texas,” Commissioner Hjaltman said. “The Public Utility Commission of Texas is doing vital work to ensure critical utilities are reliable and affordable for all Texas consumers. That mission has been important to me throughout my career, and I look forward to working with my fellow commissioners and PUCT staff to build on their progress and support Texas’ continued growth and success.”

As the chief executive and public counsel at OPUC, Hjaltman represented residential and small commercial customers in proceedings before the PUCT and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). She is an expert in the state’s electric, water, and telecommunication industries and has worked for the State of Texas in a variety of roles throughout her career.

Prior to her appointment at OPUC, Hjaltman served as deputy legislative director for Governor Abbott, working with members of the Texas Legislature and other stakeholders on various policy issues. Those issues included legislation in the 87th Legislative Session to improve the reliability of the ERCOT grid and institute first-ever weatherization requirements for ERCOT generation resources.

Hjaltman graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Science in Corporate Communications and a Bachelor of Arts in Government. She earned her Juris Doctorate from South Texas College of Law.

She was appointed to the PUCT for a term set to expire on Sept. 1, 2025.

LAJZER-FOCUSED ON COMPLIANCE

John Lajzer (known as JB) is the new Director of the Division of Compliance and Enforcement (DICE), effective August 1, 2024. He replaces Barksdale English, who was named Deputy Executive Director in May 2024.

Lajzer joined the PUCT in December 2023 as a staff attorney in DICE, where he handled enforcement actions against electric and water utilities. He most recently worked as Corporate Counsel for the Texas Mutual Insurance Company, the largest workers’ compensation insurance company in Texas. He’s also worked for the Texas Department of Insurance in its Division of Workers’ Compensation and in private practice.

“I was looking for a new challenge, and PUCT presented that challenge,” Lajzer said. “Having spent the overwhelming majority of my career on the defense side of the table, the opportunity to work on enforcement side was intriguing. Working with Barksdale and DICE was just the icing on the cake.”

While working at the PUCT is new for Lajzer, the agency is not. His father, Sidney J. Lajzer, worked at the PUCT from 1992 – 2005, primarily on performance audits and rate case analysis for telecom and electric utility cases.

When he’s not at work, Lajzer loves spending time with his wife, Lauren—a small animal/pet exotic veterinarian—and their two children, Caleb and Haley.

PUCT RESPONDS TO HURRICANE BERYL

PUCT commissioners and agency staff have been busy responding to the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl, which hit Texas during the early morning hours of July 8. Beryl was the strongest-ever gulf hurricane to form this early in hurricane season, tearing through the Greater Houston area.

The PUCT’s emergency management team was on-duty around the clock in the State Emergency Operations Center well before Beryl’s landfall, helping identify needs and coordinate the response in the impact zone.

Beryl knocked out power to nearly 3 million people in the region, including approximately 2.2 million CenterPoint customers. The scale of the outages, as well as the restoration process, has raised deep concern about utility preparedness and response for hurricanes or severe weather.

Chairman Thomas Gleeson joined Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick multiple times following the hurricane to update Texans on hurricane recovery. Chairman Gleeson, Commissioner Lori Cobos, and Executive Director Connie Corona also visited the disaster zone on Monday, July 15, exactly one week after Beryl hit to survey the cleanup and

The PUCT is also encouraging anyone impacted by the outages caused by Hurricane Beryl or severe spring and summer weather to share their experience. A public questionnaire is available on the agency homepage. As of mid-August, more than 16,000 submissions have been received. The questionnaire will remain open until October 6, 2024.

Gov. Abbott directed the PUCT to investigate hurricane preparedness and response of utilities in the greater Houston area and submit the agency’s findings in a report to the Legislature no later than Dec. 1, 2024. To inform the investigation, the agency issued requests for information to electric, water, and telecommunications utilities, power generation companies, retail electric providers, trade associations, local governments, community centers and organizations, and medical and eldercare organizations that were impacted by Beryl or the May derecho. Responses to those information requests were due to the PUCT by August 30, 2024.

ChairmanThomasGleesonjoinsGov.AbbottforupdateonHurricaneBerylresponse

PUCT STAFFS THE STATE OPERATIONS CENTER DURING SEVERE SPRING WEATHER, HURRICANE BERYL

Extreme weather, including strong thunderstorms, tornadoes, derechos (damaging windstorms), and a hurricane kept members of the PUCT’s Critical Infrastructure Security & Risk Management (CISRM) division busy in the state emergency operations center (SOC) during the late spring and early summer. Their main job is to help coordinate the safe, fast response and restoration of power by utilities.

From mid-May to early June, members of the CISRM team reported to the SOC daily, following up on the community needs caused by severe weather across Texas as large storms rotated through each area over the course of several weeks. On May 16, a derecho hit Houston and southeast Texas, leaving approximately 1,000,000 outages throughout the area. Over the course of the next 10 days, severe storms—including several tornadoes—hit the DFW area and the Temple and Belton region in central Texas before converging upon the Houston area again. Another estimated 1,000,000 outages were reported across utility service territories thanks to these storms.

The CISRM team was reactivated to the SOC July 5 as Hurricane Beryl bore down on Texas. The storm made landfall near Matagorda, Texas, just north of Corpus Christi, in the early morning hours of July 8 before moving up the coast to Houston. Beryl created nearly 3 million utility outages in the aftermath of the hurricane.

A huge thanks to Shawn Hazard, Olivia Hemby, and Kelly Taylor, who all worked tirelessly at the SOC with the goal of keeping Texans safe. Combined, PUCT staff spent more than 600 hours working at the SOC during the spring and summer.

OPE IN YOUR CORNER: JOIN US AT THE CENTERPOINT COMMUNITY OPEN HOUSES

The PUCT’s Office of Public Engagement (OPE) and other volunteers from throughout the agency are attending CenterPoint Energy’s Community Open Houses this summer and fall—and we want to see you!

These open houses are part of CenterPoint’s "Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative” – a plan launched after Hurricane Beryl to improve the utility’s resiliency, customer communications, and community partnerships before the next major storm hits. It’s important to the PUCT that you get your questions answered and concerns addressed by CenterPoint.

CenterPoint Energy has plans for 16 open houses, with at least one in each county in their service territory. Join us at one of the upcoming Open Houses and share your thoughts with CenterPoint and with the PUCT!

TEXAS ENERGY FUND APPLICANTS MOVE TO “DUE DILIGENCE” ROUND OF REVIEW

The PUCT received 72 applications requesting more than $24 billion to participate in the TEF’s In-ERCOT Program, representing plans to add more than 38,000 megawatts of potential new generation to the ERCOT grid. Of these, the 17 projects that the Commission approved moving forward total more than $5.38 billion in requested TEF loan funds and 9,781 megawatts of potential new generation. PUCT staff and project administrator Deloitte will examine each application advanced to due diligence to ensure that application assertions are supported by appropriate documentation and that the projects are suitable for TEF loan funding.

Since the PUCT advanced the set of 17 applications, “Application 162 – NextEra and Aegle Power” failed the due diligence phase of the loan application process after NextEra Energy notified the PUCT that it is not a party to the loan application. Accordingly, the PUCT has denied that application, and the project will not be eligible to receive a loan from the TEF. For more information, click here

The chart below shows the 16 applications that will continue due diligence review with their corresponding project capacity information. Given the denial of Application 162, these applications represent approximately $4.5 billion in TEF loans that may be awarded.

To be eligible to apply for an In-ERCOT Generation Loan, interested parties were required to file a Notice of Intent (NOI) by May 31, 2024. The PUCT received 125 NOIs signaling initial interest in the In-ERCOT Loan Program.

The In-ERCOT Generation Loan Program will provide low-interest (3%) loans with a 20-year term to qualifying companies for the construction of new dispatchable electric generating facilities in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) power region or the expansion of existing facilities providing power to the ERCOT power region. Qualifying projects must add at least 100 megawatts of new dispatchable generation capacity to the ERCOT grid. The PUCT will make initial disbursements for all approved in-ERCOT loans before December 31, 2025.

The Texas Legislature enacted the Texas Energy Fund through the passage of Senate Bill 2627 during the 88th Regular Legislative Session; Texas voters then approved the TEF in November 2023. PUCT staff continue to work on implementation of the TEF’s remaining programs, the Completion Bonus Grant Program, the Texas Backup Power Package Program, and the Outside ERCOT Grant Program. More information on these programs and the TEF can be found on the PUCT website.

PUBLIC UTILITY COMMISSION OF TEXAS ADOPTS RELIABILITY STANDARD FOR THE ERCOT MARKET

The Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) voted on August 29 to adopt a reliability standard for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) region. Setting a standard for reliability in ERCOT will allow for regular assessments of the grid’s ability to meet consumer demand and help the PUCT and ERCOT determine what market or reliability improvements could be necessary in the future.

“The ERCOT grid is more reliable today than it has ever been, and we know our system must continue to evolve to meet the growing demand for power in our state,” PUCT Chairman Thomas Gleeson said. “As we enhance our grid to support the future of Texas, it’s critical we clearly define the standard at which we expect the market and system to operate. By establishing a reliability standard for the ERCOT region today, we are setting a strong expectation for the market and charting a clear path to further secure electric reliability.”

Adoption of the reliability standard meets requirements laid out in Senate Bill 3, as passed by the 87th Texas Legislature and signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott.

According to §25.508, the rule adopted by the Commission, the ERCOT grid must meet three criteria to remain in compliance with the reliability standard:

Frequency – In the ERCOT region, a grid outage resulting from inadequate power supply to meet demand must be expected to occur no more than once per ten years on average.

Duration – A potential grid outage resulting from inadequate power supply to meet demand must be expected to last less than 12 hours.

Magnitude – The amount of electricity lost during any hour of a potential outage resulting from inadequate power supply to meet demand must be expected to be less than the amount of electricity that can be safely and effectively rotated during an outage.

Detailed explanations of these criteria can be found in the rule

The rule also establishes a process for a regular assessment of the ERCOT region’s reliability. Beginning January 1, 2026, ERCOT must conduct a probability-based assessment every three years to determine whether the power system is meeting the reliability standard and is expected to continue meeting the standard for the next three years. If ERCOT determines that the system fails to meet the reliability standard, it must include in its report to the Commission recommended changes to the ERCOT market design that could address the deficiency and outline the potential cost of those changes. The PUCT would then provide 30 days for the public to comment on the ERCOT assessment.

If ERCOT’s assessment shows that the system fails to meet the reliability standard, the independent market monitor (IMM) must conduct an independent review and Commission staff must provide their own recommendations on potential market design changes and associated costs. The Commission would then review ERCOT’s assessment, the IMM’s review, Commission staff’s recommendations, and public comments to determine whether any market design changes may be necessary.

At the August 29 open meeting, Commissioners also approved a Value of Lost Load (VOLL), which is an estimate of the value of electric reliability to consumers for the ERCOT region. Using results from a survey of consumers in the ERCOT region and an ERCOT analysis, Commissioners approved a VOLL of $35,000 per megawatt-hour. This value will also help the PUCT evaluate potential market or reliability improvements.

More information related to the development of the reliability standard is available in PUCT Docket No. 54584. More information related to the VOLL and consumer survey is available in PUCT Docket No. 55837

DIVING DEEP INTO THE DATA

The devil may be in the details, so the PUCT is diving deeper into the data. The Market Analysis (MA) Division now has a Data Analytics team that will focus on specialized data projects and provide support to other divisions within the agency. Current team members include Chris Brown (Manager), Tyler Nicholson, Jacob Bulzak, and Julie Gauldin. They bring expertise in economic theory, econometrics, mathematics, and statistical analysis.

The team ramped up this spring and is already contributing to major projects, including the Generation Interconnection Allowance rulemaking project, the Texas Energy Fund project, and the Value of Lost Load (VOLL) study.

“Having an in-house data team gives the agency the capability to make better, data-driven policymaking and rulemaking decisions,” Brown said.

The Data Analytics team has been busy setting up processes and procedures for data analysis projects; assessing the agency’s data needs; reviewing utility companies’ resiliency plans; and working on the Reliability Standard project, the Performance Credit Mechanism, and the Ancillary Services study.

CONGRATULATIONS ARE IN ORDER…

… for our own Werner Roth, who will receive the 2024 GCPA empowering Young Professionals Award by the Gulf Coast Power Association.

The award is given annually to someone under the age of 40 who demonstrates excellence in the electric power industry, makes unique contributions to the success of the electric power market, and serves as a role model and leader for others. Roth has worked at the PUCT since January 2014, currently serving as a Senior Market Economist.

Roth will receive the award during the GCPA’s 39th Annual Fall Conference, held from Sept. 30 – Oct. 2, 2024, in Austin.

WORK WITH US AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

The PUCT is hiring candidates across multiple agency divisions. It’s our job to ensure reliable, affordable, and accountable electric, water and telecom utility service for Texans and our fastgrowing state. Please visit our website for our latest career opportunities.

SUMMER UNDER THE PINK DOME

Texas legislators brought a different kind of heat to the Capitol over the summer months, with several important interim committee hearings. Chairman Thomas Gleeson, PUCT Commissioners, and staff provided updates to House and Senate committees on the agency’s progress implementing key legislation and the agency’s response to recent to severe weather events.

On August 27, Executive Director Connie Corona testified before the Senate Business and Commerce Committee on implementation of the Texas Energy Fund (TEF). She provided committee members updates on both the current and future plans for implementation of the four TEF programs—the in-ERCOT Generation Loan Program, the Completion Bonus Grant Program, the Outside ERCOT Grant Program, and the Texas Backup Power Package Program.

Following Hurricane Beryl in early July, the Senate Select Special Committee on Hurricane and Tropical Storm Preparedness, Recovery, and Electricity was formed. Additionally, Governor Abbott directed the PUCT to undertake a rigorous study to determine the causes of the repeated and ongoing power failures in the Greater Houston area after severe weather events.

The Commission provided the Legislature with updates in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl. Chairman Gleeson testified on July 29 before the Senate Special Committee on Hurricane and Tropical Storm Preparedness, Recovery, and Electricity. He outlined the PUCT’s response to Hurricane Beryl, including the agency’s initiation of the investigation into the aftermath of the storm.

Both Chairman Gleeson and Executive Director Corona appeared before the House Committee on State Affairs on July 31 to discuss the agency’s implementation of several key bills passed by the 88th Texas Legislature, including Senate Bill 1500, the agency’s Sunset bill. On June 10, the House’s State Affairs Committee heard invited testimony from Chairman Gleeson on general agency matters and Commissioner Glotfelty on the progress of the Texas Advanced Nuclear Reactor Working Group, while ERCOT President and CEO Pablo Vegas provided an update on ERCOT’s forecasting and expected load growth.

The Senate Business and Commerce Committee kicked off their interim meetings on June 12 with the PUCT in attendance to discuss the state’s work to provide incentives for new thermal generation, including any impacts to consumers; identify future electric transmission and distribution system needs; and discuss the impacts of bitcoin mining on the Texas electric grid.

The House of Representatives interim charges can be found here, while the Senate interim charges can be found here.

PUCT SUBMITS LEGISLATIVE APPROPRIATIONS

REQUEST FOR 2026-2027

BIENNIUM

As required before the start of every Legislative Session, the PUCT has submitted our Legislative Appropriations Request (LAR) for the 2026-2027 Biennium, which will start September 1, 2025.

The LAR is the agency’s budget document to provide the Texas Legislature with a roadmap of how much funding the agency needs to meet its mission and how it will spend its money over the course of the next biennium, or two fiscal years. The Texas Legislature will approve, modify, or deny the agency’s LAR as part of the entire state budget to be drafted and adopted during the 89th Legislative Session, which starts in January 2025.

The PUCT is requesting a baseline budget amount of $66.3 million for Fiscal Years 2026-2027. In addition, the agency has requested funding for the following exceptional items—one-time budgetary requests to accomplish timely needs throughout the agency.