What Is The Public Utility Commission of Texas?

Background

The Public Utility Commission of Texas, or PUC, regulates the state’s electric and telecommunication utilities, implements respective legislation, and offers customer assistance in resolving consumer complaints. It works to protect customers, foster competition, and promote high quality infrastructure among the electric and telecommunication’s wholesale market. In 1975, the Texas Legislature enacted the Public Utility Regulatory Act (PURA) and created the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) to provide statewide regulation of rates and services of electric and telecommunications utilities. Texas was the last state to enact this kind of law.

The combined effects of Texas legislation passed in 1995 and the Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 allowed for competition in telecommunication’s wholesale and retail services and the creation of a competitive electric wholesale market. Further changes in the 1999 Texas Legislature called for a restructuring of the electric utility industry and created new legislation that ensured the protection of customers’ rights in the new competitive environment. These changes have dramatically re-shaped the PUC’s mission and focus, shifting from up-front regulation of rates and services to oversight of competitive markets and compliance enforcement of statues and rules.

The PUC has played a central role in overseeing the transition to competition in the local and long distance telecommunications markets and the wholesale and retail electric markets by ensuring that customers receive the intended benefits of the shift.

The PUC also regulates the rates and services of transmission and distribution utilities that operate in competitive markets, investor-owned electric utilities where competition has not been chosen and incumbent local exchange companies that have not elected incentive regulation.

In 2009, the PUC opted not to seek some stimulus funds available to them.

Donna Nelson of Austin is the current Chair of the PUC. She was appointed to the position by Governor Rick Perry in July 2011.

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December 3, 2013

The $4 Billion Texas Electric Bill

When it comes to spectator sports, it might not rank with college football in Texas. But when a state senate committee held a hearing last week to figure out if something is wrong with the state’s deregulated market for electricity, people far from Texas were glued to their computers, watching the hearing live over the […]

November 26, 2013

Should Texas Pay Power Companies Just For Having Power Plants?

Photo by JOEL SAGET/AFP/Getty Images The Public Utility Commission of Texas is proposing a change to the way the state’s electricity market is run. And some lawmakers voiced concerns during a public hearing at the Capitol yesterday. The Texas Senate Natural Resources Committee hosted a hearing to question the Public Utility Commission, or PUC, about the possible […]

October 30, 2013

Want to Opt Out of a Smart Meter in Texas? It Will Cost You.

They’re in over 6 million Texas homes. But if you want to get rid of them, you’ll have to pony up. We’re talking about smart meters — advanced electricity meters that communicate wirelessly with the grid. They’ve spread rapidly across the state since 2005, when the state legislature passed a law to fund and encourage […]

October 25, 2013

Debate Gets Feisty Between Regulators Over Texas’ Power Supply

Public Utility Commission Signals Move to Increase Reliability, Which Could Raise Prices; Anderson Calls Idea “Corporate Welfare” Meetings of the Texas Public Utility Commission are not a place you go to see fireworks. They usually deal with phone companies, transmission lines, and power generation. But it’s on that last subject where the conversation got a […]

October 2, 2013

Smart Meters Coming to Far West Texas Find Mixed Reception

Millions of them have been installed in homes across Texas, but not everyone is happy about them. Smart meters, which allow allow utilities to respond to outages faster and help utilities and consumers monitor their energy use, have been deployed across much of the state at the urging of the state’s Public Utility Commission (PUC). […]

September 26, 2013

For Texas Electricity Customers, Here Comes the Sun

While Texas leads the nation in the production of oil, natural gas and wind energy, the sunny state is lagging a little in the solar energy race. Texas comes seventh in installed solar, but ranks first in potential for solar energy. Several new developments in the state’s energy industry may begin to change that. If […]

September 12, 2013

Restoring Power: What Houston Learned From Ike

In the five years since Hurricane Ike knocked out power in most of metropolitan Houston, the city now has more high-tech power poles and fewer trees in power line rights-of-way. But there’s no real assurance of a better outcome the next time a big storm hits. “If you get another direct hit from a large […]

September 5, 2013

Texans Use Less Power than Expected, Baffling State Regulators

As the Texas Public Utility Commission (PUC) considers changing the electricity market so there’s more money to build new power plants, a mystery has popped up: why aren’t Texans using as much electricity as predicted? “There’s something that’s been going on recently with the forecasts, which affects a lot of things,” said PUC commissioner Kenneth […]

July 26, 2013

Risk of Life Without Air Conditioning Grows for Low Income Texans

Over the next three years, low-income Texans will receive approximately $800 million from the state to help pay their summer electric bills. However, on September 1, 2016, that money will run out. As a result, Texans who cannot afford to pay their electric bills are likely to go without air-conditioning during the summer. The money […]

June 7, 2013

With a Broken Safety Net Abandoned, What’s Next For Low Income Texans?

At the start of the year, over $800 million sat unused in a state fund designed to help low income Texans, and state Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, thought there was nothing he could do about it. “If you had asked me in January, did I envision these dollars going to the intended population? I would […]