Important information about regulatory changes that impact your accounts
(for Texas electricity customers)

September 13, 2023

Thank you for trusting us with your electricity supply needs. We are writing to inform you of changes in charges you will soon begin to see on your electricity bill. These changes are the result of regulatory changes and changes in law that affect your electricity contract with us.

What are the Changes?

In February 2021, Winter Storm Uri resulted in outages at many of the electricity generation resources within the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) region. In response to this event and in an effort to stabilize the electricity market and ensure sufficient capacity to meet the needs of Texans, Texas regulatory bodies implemented several changes that increased energy supply costs in Texas. Specifically:

Securitization Charges: Securitization was authorized by House Bill 4492¹ in 87th Legislative session. Following that bill, the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) issues orders that allow ERCOT to obtain ~$3 billion in funds to help stabilize the wholesale electricity market. 

Specifically, the charges authorized are:

• • • Securitization Default Charges² a non-bypassable charge effective Q1 2022.
    • Securitization Uplift Charges³ a non-bypassable charge effective Q2 2022.

Ancillary Services obligation increase: To better reliably run the ERCOT grid, ERCOT made a decision to significantly increase the amount of ancillary services it procured. This was done through several regulatory actions in 2021.^{4 5} 

How does this impact my business?

• Securitization: These are brand new charges associated with serving customers in Texas. APG&E will be assessed these charges on a daily basis by ERCOT, collect the charges from customers, and remit the receipts back to ERCOT.
• Ancillary Services obligation increase: If your agreement was signed prior to December 10, 2021 and includes ancillary services as part of your Contract Price, we will be passing through the incremental ancillary services costs caused by the regulatory action. If your agreement does not include ancillary services as part of your Contract Price, you are already getting these increased costs passed through to you.

Why am I getting these charges?

Your contract specifies that we may pass through charges related to regulatory action or changes in law such as these.

When/where will I see the change?

These charges should begin to show up in Q32022 in line items on your bill called: Securitization Default, Securitization Uplift Chg, and Additional A/S Charges.

We know any unexpected changes in costs are challenging, and we appreciate your understanding in this matter related to regulatory changes. If you have any questions, please contact Customer Care, and we will be happy to assist you.

¹ https://capitol.texas.gov/billlookup/text.aspx?LegSess=87R&Bill=HB4492 
² https://interchange.puc.texas.gov/search/filings/?UtilityType=A&ControlNumber=52321 
³ https://interchange.puc.texas.gov/search/filings/?UtilityType=A&ControlNumber=52322 
⁴ https://www.ercot.com/services/comm/mkt_notices/archives/5897 
⁵ https://www.ercot.com/services/comm/mkt_notices/detail?id=d6820976-4c21-3ad3-accf-dd09c69af28b