If the Texas Public Utilities Commission is measuring the projected success of its deregulation program by the pilot program set to begin this summer, officials might wonder if they’re doing something wrong. Electric deregulation takes effect across the state on Jan. 1, but so far, it appears that customers — especially residential ones — are a little wary of how it works and what they will get out of it.

The state’s investor-owned utilities are preparing to launch a delayed pilot program on July 6 with up to 5% of their customers allowed to enroll early. While state officials had predicted that too many would want to sign up early to cash in incentives and expected energy savings, that has been far from the case. In reality, the PUC campaign has worked marginally well only with industrial customers, and only the Houston area customers seem more than a little interested.

Reliant Energy, whose utility HL&P covers the Houston area, has had the highest pilot enrollment in the state, but it has never been close to reaching its 5% quota. “One hundred percent (of the state) was exposed to the pilot and could have participated,” but only 3.5% of the 5% elected to participate, said Joe Bob Perkins, president of Reliant Resources, the wholesale arm of Reliant Energy.

“We anticipated 5% in Houston or Dallas, but there was no propensity to switch, and in Dallas, there was even less,” he said. “Neither market was what we anticipated. We expected to go beyond 5%.” More of Reliant’s industrial customers signed up for the pilot, but numbers there also did not reach 5% in any market in the state.

On the residential side, as of Monday, total pilot customers eligible to participate numbered about 267,065 — not all of the state’s six million customers were eligible. Of those eligible, only 74,956 had signed up for a pilot, and two companies reported no pilot customers at all.

Leading the residential pilot list is Reliant Energy HL&P, which has signed up 48,857 of 75,313 eligible, about 65%. Other companies’ sign-ups so far include TXU Electric Co., 25,270 signed up of 113,295 eligible (22.3%); Texas-New Mexico Power Co., using the First Choice Power brand, had 519 signed up of 7,963 eligible (6.5%); AEP-West Texas Utilities Co., 82 signed up of 7,549 eligible (1.1%); AEP-Central Power and Light Co., had 224 signed up of 28,764 eligible (0.8%); and TXU Sesco had only four signed up of 1,767 eligible (0.2%) residential customers.

According to PUC statistics, companies recruited to encourage pilot participants that so far have failed to attract any residential customers include AEP-Southwestern Electric Power Co., which has 6,745 eligible customers, and Southwestern Public Service Co., which has 10,602 customers eligible.

Though pilot participation is low, TXU said that it was not disappointed in the figures thus far and said it expects that when the program shakes out by the end of the year, customers now hesitating will be looking for companies with reliable service. Beginning July 6, PUC said it will automatically switch about 21,000 pilot customers a day, and statements from the new providers will begin in August or September.

The news is a little more encouraging for pilot sign ups on the industrial side, at least for the Houston area. Reliant again has the lead, with 102% of its eligible customers signing up for the pilot — 241,681 eligible, 247,039 requesting participation. It also had 80% of its commercial customers interested, with 200,883 of 251,016 eligible. AEP-CPL has had 92% of its industrial customers signing up, with 79,246 of 86,418 eligible. About 64% of its commercial customers also want to participate in the pilot.

Less encouraging on the industrial side were numbers from Dallas-area TXU, which so far has only signed up 19% of its industrial base, 34,211 of 183,054. About 80% of its commercial customers are interested, however. Texas-New Mexico Power got 5,762 of 8,882 industrial customers to participate, which is 65%, and only 45% of its commercial base. AEP-WTU got 17%, or 2,126 of 12,524 to sign up, and surprisingly, 61% of its commercial customers.

Reliant officials said that PUC apparently “predetermined” the switching behavior of the state’s utility customers, but they appear to be a hard sell, even with the incentives offered by various programs.

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