Electric Reliability Council of Texas, Inc., grid operator for most of the state, announced today that customers of Blu Power of Texas are being switched this week to providers-of-last-resort (POLRs) at the request of Blu Power.  

The number of customers being switched is 2,092, including 2,087 residential and five small non-residential customers.  The size of the associated load is approximately 59 megawatt-hours per day. 

Residential customers by transmission provider are:

Oncor                                       1,642 

CenterPoint                               414

AEP Central                              14  

Texas New Mexico Power           10

AEP North                                 7

Sharyland Utilities                      0  

ERCOT will work with transmission providers and affected retail electric providers to begin the switching process today.  Most switching will be completed by Thursday, July 3. 

Customers who are transitioned from Blu Power to a designated POLR will be notified in accordance with Public Utility Commission (PUC) rules which require both the defaulting retail electric provider and the new provider to notify the customer.   

The POLR service is designed as a temporary safety net assuring continuous electric service if a retail electric provider leaves the market, and customer accounts are not sold or transferred to a competitor.  POLR rates may be high priced due to planning costs, so Blu Power customers who receive notice that they are on a POLR rate, should immediately review the notice and contact the provider or a different provider to enroll in another plan. 

TO SHOP FOR A NEW PRICE PLAN

Customers may shop for a new price plan at the PUC’s Power to Choose Web site:

http://www.powertochoose.org/ 

Providers-of-last-resort are listed on the PUC web site: http://www.puc.state.tx.us/ocp/electric/polr/polr.cfm  

FOR QUESTIONS AND ASSISTANCE

Electric customers who have questions should contact the PUC Consumer Hotline, 1-888-782-8477, or go to the PUC’s Consumer Web Site.