Consolidated applications for customer rate relief 2021 winter storm

Consolidated applications for customer rate relief and related regulatory asset determinations in connection with the February 2021 winter storm​​

Railroad Commission of Texas Hearings Division​

Special not​​ice to utility​​ custo​mers​

No action is required on your part. You are receiving this notice because your gas utility service provider has filed an application with the Texas Railroad Commission (the state agency with regulatory oversight authority over Texas gas utilities) to recover certain extraordinary costs incurred in connection with the February 2021 Winter Storm Uri.

After the winter storm, the Texas Legislature enacted and Governor Abbott signed into law H.B. 1520, which created new rate relief measures designed to reduce bill impacts for customers. This law allows affected utilities to recover through securitization financing their qualifying extraordinary costs incurred to provide service during Winter Storm Uri. A total of 11 gas utilities timely filed applications for such relief: AgriTexGas, Atmos, Bluebonnet, CenterPoint Energy, Corix, CoServ, EPCOR, NatGas, SiEnergy, TGS, and UniGas. These applications, initially docketed individually, later were consolidated into a single docket, captioned above, for administrative efficiency and because they involved common questions of fact and law. As alleged in their respective applications, these utilities expect that the use of securitization financing will provide the most cost effective and affordable method of recovering these costs from customers. 

Procedurally, these applications have not yet been adjudicated and are pending before the Railroad Commission, with a merits hearing scheduled to occur in Austin from November 2-3, 2021. This docket already is heavily contested, with formal participation by numerous intervening parties, each represented by legal counsel, including the Railroad Commission’s own staff and several coalitions of cities comprised, in total, of over 200 member cities located throughout Texas. Additionally, all 11 utilities have been ordered to provide this Special Notice to customers likely to be affected by their respective applications and requested relief, if approved. You can find information on practice and procedures on the Hearings Division’s website, as well as view all the public filings made in this case by following the CASES links and searching for this docket’s number (“7061”). I have also directed these utilities to publish their nonconfidential application materials on their respective websites.

Sincerely,

John B. Dobson

Administrative Law Judge

​Supportin​g document​​s:

• Customer notice