As a Texas resident living in a deregulated electric market, you have probably come to realize that changes often occur. At Texas Power, we do our best to include fees associated with the transmission and distribution of electricity within your rate per kilowatt hour (kWh). Unfortunately, it often occurs that an unexpected charge is passed through from the Transmission Distribution Service Provider (TDSP), or other agencies as identified in your Terms of Service Agreement.
These charges may be associated with changes in transmission and distribution equipment, maintaining reliability and continuation of power or even recovery after a natural disaster. They may also be attributed to changes in the TDSP tariff filing, which are allowed by the Public Utility Commission to be revised throughout the year.
As your retail electric provider, Texas Power is allowed to pass through these unexpected charges to the customer on the invoice. If additional charges are passed through, they may appear as a separate line item. This is not considered a material change to your original contract agreement and may occur with no prior notice. When possible, Texas Power will notify you of such changes, but such changes may occur unexpectedly.
One example of this is Centerpoint’s Hurricane Ike Recovery Charge. This will be used to replenish Centerpoint’s costs to repair transmission and distribution equipment and restore power to the 2 million plus homes affected by Hurricane Ike in 2008. The reasonable cost of restoration was found by the Public Utilities Commission of Texas to be $662,816,820. It is predicted that average customers can expect a charge of approximately $1.50-2.50 per month for approximately the next 14 years. This will be passed on to the customer directly from Centerpoint, and listed as a separate line item on the customer’s invoice. Texas Power will have no authority over or involvement with this charge other than disclosing it from Centerpoint on the customer’s Texas Power invoice.
As stated in your Terms of Service Agreement:
“Any pricing change made in response to a change in law or regulatory charges may be made without prior notice to you and is not considered a material change. Any charges incurred by Texas Power as a result of additional charges or changes in fees by the TDSP as permitted by the Public Utility Commission of Texas (“PUCT”) may be passed through to you without advanced notice, are not considered a material change and shall be listed separately on your bill.”