In a strikingly similar case facing Pennsylvania regulators, the Texas Public Utility Commission (PUCT) staff wants customer complaints in Texas to be resolved before bankrupt NewPower Co.’s certification as a Retail Electricity Provider (REP) is pulled. Before NewPower declared bankruptcy this spring, the PUCT had received more than 300 customer complaints about the company’s service.

The filing by the commission staff this month, which concerns NewPower’s petition to withdraw its REP certification in Texas, is not the first to detail problems with the company. Last month, 13,000 PECO customers who had received bills from NewPower were warned by Pennsylvania regulators that the bills did not meet regulatory standards and that customers should not pay them (see Power Market Today, Aug. 30 ). In its filing, the PUCT also referred to Pennsylvania problems, and said it suspected NewPower’s Texas customers had bills with “similar deficiencies.”

NewPower had been an Enron Corp. subsidiary for about 30 days before it was spun off in late 1999 to take advantage of the deregulated U.S. marketplace. However, because of its short-term affiliation with Enron, the company was caught up in its bankruptcy last year, and never recovered. Enron also still owns about 44% of the company. Offers to purchase NewPower, including one from Centrica plc, were ultimately called off because of Enron’s legal entanglements (see NGI, April 1).

“Staff’s focus at this point is on ensuring that all NewPower customers are successfully transitioned to another REP, attempting to resolve or assisting customers in resolving actionable customer complaints against NewPower, and addressing NewPower billing issues,” the filing said. The filing noted that the staff of PUCT had held several meetings with NewPower personnel, which “raised a number of questions and concerns,” especially unresolved billing problems. Those concerns have to be resolved before the REP certification is withdrawn, the commission staff said.

According to the filing, the PUCT’s Customer Protection Division (CPD) has received numerous complaints from NewPower customers who received bills that did not contain usage data and/or contained amounts due which were not consistent with amounts customers they paid in the past to the company. Other complaints concerned customers who did not receive credits for promotions offered, including one month’s free service or gift certificates. “Staff has strong reason to believe that CPD will receive more customer complaints of a similar nature in the coming weeks. NewPower has agreed to work with staff to resolve these complaints,” which it said was ongoing.

PUCT staff also discovered other billing inconsistencies, including “apparent overcharges, non-verifiable transmission and distribution non-bypassable charges, unidentifiable Nuclear Decommissioning Charges, or other transmission and distribution non-bypassable charges.” The filing noted that staff “has concerns about NewPower’s ability and/or willingness to properly complete its business affairs in Texas in accordance with applicable law, including the commission’s customer protection plans.”

NewPower has informed the PUCT that it will keep its customer call center in Texas “at full strength” through Sept. 30, and “it intends to respond to and resolve customer questions and complaints through that time.” All final bills to its 78,000 Texas customers also will be sent by Sept. 30, it said. Because of its bankruptcy status, however, the Texas staff said it was concerned about customers’ ability to resolve complaints, which would be “effectively foreclosed” when the call center closes.

“Staff needs more time to fully investigate and understand the extent to which customers are receiving incorrect or incomplete bills, and to determine how to handle these and any other relevant issues, including any need for restitution or a separate enforcement action.” It also could not propose a procedural schedule, but said it would continue discussions with NewPower to “at least narrow the contested issues…as quickly as possible.” A pre-hearing conference is expected to be convened “as soon as possible,” it said.

According to NewPower, the bills sent to Texas customers were correct in the amount owed, even though there were generic codes for power use data. Kathleen Magruder, governmental affairs director for the company, said NewPower “can justify every dollar that was bill,” and said “we absolutely, positively, categorically state that we never issued a fraudulent bill.”

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