State Agency is Investigating Electric Retailer
Posted on: Thursday, 15 May 2008, 09:01 CDT
By R.A. Dyer, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas
May 15--AUSTIN -- National Power Co., a small Houston-based electric retailer, has found itself in hot water with Texas regulators.
The company last week sent letters advising customers that it was canceling existing fixed-rate plans and jacking up prices. That means some customers who signed annual contracts last win- ter could see their bills go up by as much as 50 percent, according to figures provided by the Texas Public Utility Commission.
On Wednesday, the PUC announced that it was launching an investigation. The PUC also removed National Power from the state's Web site that lists competitive electric offers for consumers.
A PUC spokesman said that appropriate company officials have not responded to agency inquiries. "Texas law and PUC rules require that electricity customers be protected from misleading or deceptive practices," the PUC said in a release Wednesday.
A customer-service official for National Power declined to comment or to provide other contact phone numbers for the company. She said she would pass a message from the Star-Telegram on to company officials, who did not respond by Wednesday.
The regulatory action came after the Star-Telegram this week reported on inquiries by the PUC's enforcement division into National Power.
"A fixed-rate deal is a fixed-rate deal," PUC Chairman Barry Smitherman said Tuesday. "If I get a fixed-rate mortgage, I assume that I'm going to pay the same amount for the life of the mortgage, regardless of what happens in the interest-rate market."
The PUC took similar action in 2006 when a pizza company said its power bill nearly doubled even though it had negotiated a fixed-rate deal. The circumstances in that case were slightly different -- the pizza company's power contract got sold to a third party, which unilaterally raised rates -- but the PUC still took the matter seriously enough to push through a negotiated settlement.
Keller resident David Hirsch said that if such dealings are allowed to stand, it could undermine the whole point of retail competition under which consumers are encouraged to shop around for the best electric prices. He said he signed up for a fixed-rate deal with National Power in early March, only to find out in May that the company had tacked on extra charges.
"It's frustrating," he said. "If I had known what National Power was going to do with me, I would have gone with another company. ... If you're going to be quoted a price, then they need to stick to it and to honor their contract."
A PUC spokesman said the agency has received hundreds of complaints about National Power this week.
Smitherman said that if National Power violated agency rules, the PUC can assess fines of up to $25,000 per violation. "There was no doubt about how we felt about changing the terms of a fixed-price contract," Smitherman said Tuesday.
He also said he has seen no evidence that other electric-power companies are reneging on fixed-rate deals.
Carin Nersesian, a spokeswoman for a state agency charged with representing consumer interests, said it's important for the PUC to ensure that the terms of service offered to electric customers are simple and easy to understand.
"It's all about customer education and transparency," she said.
www.powertochoose.org
-----
To see more of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dfw.com.
Copyright (c) 2008, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
Source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, Texas)
User Comments (0)
RSS Feeds