Fifth Wheel Maintenance

Fifth Wheel Maintenance

Who's Who in the Texas electricity market

The following topics will be discussed and clarified to help all Texans to understand better the nature Texas electricity market:

* The Public Utility Commission of Texas and the role in the protection of their rights to electricity, in addition to responsibilities and regulations about it.

* The role of retail electric provider (REP).

* Transmission and distribution electricity and its relationship to electricity generators, REP and the consumer.

* Power generators and their role in electricity production and place on the grid.

* The Electric Reliability Council of Texas and is a function in the management of electricity in Texas.

Each section will detail major players, their responsibilities in the Texas electricity market and how each affects the final outcome of the Texas energy companies and consumers.

The Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT)

What is the PUCT?

The Commission Public Services of Texas (PUCT) is a local state agency responsible for regulating electric utilities and telecommunications. Its primary mission is to ensure for consumer protections are in place, encourage healthy competition and promote high quality and safe energy and telecommunications infrastructure.

In addition to operating a consumer information Hot Line, The PUCT also regulates the rates and services of all telephone companies investor-owned electric and local, establishes and maintains current service standards for regulated utilities and statewide franchises for TV matters cable and video services.

Here is a list of consumer services that the PUCT has the authority to regulate:

* Long distance
* Wireless Telecommunication Services
* Gas
* Water
* Cable TV and content rates
* The rates established by power plants municipal
* Rates set by the Electric Cooperatives
* Internet
* ISDN

What role does the PUCT in Texas Service Electric?

The PUCT is of vital importance in the deregulated electricity market in Texas. Although it is quickly becoming a knowledge more common than Texas is a largely liberalized electricity, the mere fact that Texans have the power to choose their electricity supplier is often lost in the fray misinformation.

The PUCT is simply a consumer advocate for election in the electricity market in Texas. The PUCT has primary responsibility to regulate prices and conditions of service for both transmission and distribution in the deregulated areas of Texas, ERCOT oversight of market management renewable energy resources, protecting the consumer for electric service at retail and more.

What the PUCT does not do is support particular providers of electricity on the other, which helps to promote competition and protect consumer rights would not survive otherwise.

The PUC and ERCOT

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) manages the flow of electricity to 22 million customers Texas, the management of a network that carries more than 85 percent of the state's electric load. ERCOT oversees and maintains about 40,000 miles of transmission line through 75 percent of Texas, which amounts to a large area of the state deregulated electricity.

The PUCT specifically provides oversight ERCOT, ensuring that all market rules are carefully reviewed at the request of the public interest. ERCOT simply control the reliability of the system, so when you think of the vast majority of the deregulated market in Texas, ERCOT and is neighbor thinks PUCT environment.

The PUCT and Texas electric choice

The PUCT operates the Texas Electric Choice Web site dedicated to providing information to consumers seeking to switch electricity supplier. The site details the benefits switching, which means the choice of consumer electrical Texas, PUCT regulated terms of service and consumer protection, general information on deregulation of electricity in Texas and more.

The PUCT and Texas Electric Choice, or powertochoose.org, specifically provides consumers with Electricity:

* Details on the election electricity, including the fundamentals of the retail electricity market in Texas, electricity generation, the transmission and delivery of electricity and how it is maintained, and the overall security and reliability of electric service in Texas markets.
* Information general on the PUC and a link to your site.
* The process of changing electricity supply business.
* Introduction to the conservation of energy, efficiency and saving money on general advice.
* Questions to ask potential suppliers of electricity.
* Understand that consumers have options when providers are compared.
* Provide information to Texas retail electric providers (REPS)

Sources

"PUCT" http://www.puc.state.tx.us/ocp/complaints/regulate.cfm

"ERCOT" http://www.ercot.com/about/

"The Power of Choice" http://powertochoose.org/index.asp

The role of REP in Texas

There is much confusion surrounding exactly how the market electricity works in the deregulated areas of Texas. Although areas of the Texas electricity market has been deregulated for almost a decade, some people not understand that the different actors in the Texas market and the scope of their duties and responsibilities. However, the most forward-facing and well known players in the market power is without doubt the Texas Electricity Provider (REP).

What is a REP?

REP are common and widely recognized companies that provide billing and customer service aspects of your electric service. Reliant, TXU, Gexa Energy Bounce are some examples of Texas providers electricity, or REP. The biggest reason that these are the best known institutions in the Texas energy market is the simple fact that the REP will send an invoice each month in addition to the handling of activate and deactivate the service. First on their list of priorities and responsibilities is the customer relationship.

Texas A REP compete for your business by offering aa variety of rate plans, incentives and special offers for new customers, renewable energy options and more.

What exactly does a REP to provide?

The life cycle of the REP for customers like this:

The Customers call a REP and Reliant Energy and Bounce, and place an order for electric service.
The REP at the other end is responsible for logging the order with the local TDSP (Transmission / Distribution Service Provider) and ensure that electric service be turned on and ready on the date specified in the order.
Once that the service is activated, it is the responsibility of the SPR to monitor and bill customers for electricity use and collection of outstanding debt.
Similarly, when something goes wrong with the electrical service to a client or if there is a pending question, which is the role of the REP to field calls and work with clients to find most satisfactory solution possible.

So, in short, a REP is responsible for all customer-facing responsibilities in the market Electric Texas, make sure you get the lights on (and stay on) to the customer billing and customer service.

What makes a REP Texas only?

So now that we understand at a basic level it is a REP does, must have at hand a look at what separates REP to another, as far as the customer is concerned. What separates each company is an example of one of the reasons the Texas electricity market was deregulated to start: Service.

The creation of competition in Texas forces companies to work harder to generate value to its customers in order to retain and attract new business. The most obvious value for a client is lower prices, and at the end of the day, is clearly the most important. The market competition forces companies out to try to be as efficiently as possible to keep its electricity rates as close as possible to the basement of the market.

At the same time, there are other things that can offer a good REP to their customers. excellent customer service and a trained staff to answer questions is a highly valued asset for a REP. One of the most common complaints among customers is to wait too long to wait or to take over the customer service department and billing. Differentiation through the weed or the evil by choosing an electricity supplier is an advantage that Texans have deregulated areas.

REP in the competitive areas tend to offer versatile, energy plans, such as variable low or rates fixed, or the possibility that clients ask for green energy plans in order to attract new customers to sign up for service. Some suppliers also offer incentives to their customers as discounts, credits bill, airline miles and more.

The competition that is created by deregulation Texas electricity market requires different REP to work as hard and as efficiently as possible to try to stay competitive with other companies in their market. And since the REP is responsible for customer relations in the Texas market, that competition forces the REP to provide the best price, service and overall value customers to ensure they keep their customer base and attract new ones. And at day's end, this benefits customers because not only have a number of options for finding the best company for themselves, but the checks and balances created by the presence of competition helps keep the honest REP.

The TDSP role of Texas

TDSP stands for Transmission / Distribution Service Provider. That probably does not mean much for all that the average Texas, although I bet it is only the term that is familiar, and indeed not the companies themselves. But first, let's take a quick look at what exactly is a TDSP and what is its role in energy service after Texas became the deregulation.

History of electricity in Texas TDSP

When Texas deregulated, forcing incumbents (such as Reliant, TXU, etc) to break apart different. Before companies always large-scale electric electricity service, including maintenance of electricity infrastructure and obtain electricity from plants to customers from beginning to end (with some exceptions). When Texas deregulated, this practice gave way to the various Retail Electric Providers (REP). At this point, it became a conflict of interest for existing previous operators to retain ownership of its own transmission and distribution systems, since it would create a competitive advantage obvious to the larger and established companies.

At the same time, it was illogical and unreasonable to expect smaller start-ups REP to have to build and create their own infrastructure for delivering electricity to its customers. One, it would create excessive redundancy, which would be costly and have no purpose and two, the amount of money it would take to build an infrastructure from scratch would be to act as a barrier to immediate entry of new firms, defeating all purpose of deregulation in the first place.

The difference between a TDSP and REP

The TDSP, as mentioned above, maintaining infrastructure for electricity transmission or distribution. The names you probably recognize include Centralia (a division of Reliant), Oncor (splint TXU) Texas New Mexico Power AEP North Company, AEP and Central. These are the TDSPs that have power lines in and out for repair when they go down. Also are responsible for transmitting electricity through the lines and power generators in the house of a client. Owned electricity wholesale selling REP and also charge monthly fees of REP for infrastructure maintenance.

So it's a quick overview of how the work in the state TDSPs Texas. To use a metaphor that helps make it easier to understand, the TDSPs are the guys who ship in all popcorn, hotdogs, soft drinks and biscuits to the ballparks, that customers and then walk to shopping and counters the existing concession. In essence, "stock the shelves" for customers.

Electricity generators in Texas

Being a leader in crude oil producing state in the U.S. Texas plays a vital role in the energy capacity of the country in general. Texas not only provides a quarter of the country's refining capacity with nearly 5 million barrels of processed oil per day, but also represents a quarter of the total production of natural gas as the main producer in the nation.

So that goes without saying that the power generation companies are few and far between in the Lone Star State.

What is a generator Texas energy?

Power generators or power generating companies use natural gas, coal, wind, nuclear, biomass and hydro energy to produce the Texas businesses, residents and counting of commercial facilities. Energy companies own generation and operate power plants responsible for producing the energy sold in the wholesale market for Electricity Providers in Texas, which of course turn around and package it for the consumer.

The generation of Texas energy companies are responsible for a large portion of the energy capacity of the country, specifically Texas the leader in wind energy development throughout the U.S.

Major Texas Power Generators

Of course, there numerous electricity generators in Texas and several subsidiaries which are responsible for generating the energy put into the network and transmission to households and businesses throughout the state.

Here are the key players in power generation in Texas:

"Luminant" http://www.luminant.com/about/default.aspx

Luminant is a subsidiary of Energy Future Holdings (EFH), formerly TXU Corp., and generates over 16,100 megawatts (MW) of power in Texas, including 2,300 MW of capacity nuclear and 5,800 MW of generating capacity from coal. Luminant also happens to be the largest purchaser of clean energy generated from wind in Texas and the fifth largest U.S..

"NRG Energy, Inc." http://www.nrgenergy.com/index.htm

Founded in 1989, currently has a capacity NRG more than 24,000 MW worldwide, including about 11,000 MW in Texas. NRG also has full or partial ownership in 44 power generation plants.

"Suez Energy" http://www.suezenergyna.com/ourcompanies/energygen.shtml

Suez Energy Generation is located in the heart of power land in Houston, Texas. Suez owns and operates 72 power, cogeneration, steam and cold water facilities, with a total power capacity of over 7750 MW. Suez power generation facilities use various fuels to produce electricity, including renewable resources.

"Shell": http://www.shell.com

Provide the first commercial plant for the liquefaction of gas in 1964, Shell is one of the largest producers of energy in the world, active in everything from liquid gas, wind and solar energy to coal gasification technology. In addition to providing fuel for automobiles in the entire country, Shell is also heavily involved in the construction and operation of natural gas pipelines, and developing wind and solar technology.

The Power generation companies are essentially the first line of a long conveyor belt that serves the Texas electricity market, generation home and business. As a means to improve infrastructure and add new power plants is available, Texas, is usually in the front of the pack when about producing energy in new and more environmentally friendly, efficient and abundant forms.

The role of ERCOT in Texas

ERCOT is otherwise known as the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. ERCOT is not affected directly, but through their actions help ensure that electricity reliable insurance for your home.

What is ERCOT?

The Electricity Council of Texas (ERCOT) is a nonprofit entity corporation under NERC / FERC, which manages the flow of electricity and power for more than 22 million electricity consumers in Texas. ERCOT schedules power to an electricity network covering more than 38,000 miles of power transmission Texas, equal to 85% of the state electric charge. ERCOT manages 75% of liberalized electricity market in the state. ERCOT also oversees financial arrangements for the market of wholesale power in Texas, as well as customers switching more than 6.5 million Texans in deregulated areas.

What role is played in Texas ERCOT electricity market?

Electricity Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is supervised and regulated by the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT). PUCT aid in ERCOT play a role in the electricity market in Texas, helping to manage the power grid and ensure that market rules are designed to protect consumers.

One of the main functions of ERCOT in Texas electricity market is to ensure that consumers have reliable electric service. ERCOT performs this function to constantly monitor and analyze all components of the grid every 2-4 seconds for status updates. ERCOT also manages the flow of electricity in conjunction with your local Transmission and Distribution Services (TDSP) so you can have safe and reliable energy.

ERCOT also plays an important role in the deregulation of Texas electricity market. Now that people in Texas have the power to choose their retail electric provider (REP) ERCOT's role is to help facilitate the registration of sale of energy and help the process of changing electricity companies in Texas by the respondents and their clients.

Process and market participants

While ERCOT is managed and regulated by the PUCT, is not the main reason for ERCOT is able to perform its functions in the Texas electricity market. There are four main entities ERCOT help carry out their processes in three Texas: Qualified entities Scheduling (CSM), resource bodies (ER) load service entities (LSE), and the transmission and Distribution Service Providers (TDSPs).

Market Operations:

Rated Programming Entities (CSM) is the key part of market operations ERCOTs process. QSE submits daily schedules for their bilateral transactions with generations and global demand. Also QSEs bidding for ancillary services and financial payments in ERCOT.

Power Operations:

Resource entities are represented facilities by a QSE has been approved and capable of providing energy. Resource agencies either own or manage a resource generation or have the option to act as a burden as interim a resource (Laar) which correlates with ERCOT instructions to lower consumption of electricity or providing ancillary services.

The transmission and Suppliers Distribution Service (TDSPs) transmission and delivery of electricity to a customer's home or business along the poles and wires. This company provides maintenance and repair of these poles cables.

Commercial Operations:

Load Serving Entities (LSE), provides electric service to retail customers and wholesalers. LSE includes retailers that sell electricity in Texas competitive in a competitive market.

The Texas electricity market in 2009

Deregulation not only provides unique benefits to the electricity needs of Texas consumers, but also unique structural and logistical to ensure that electricity service throughout the state remains safe and reliable. Forward in 2009, continued growth of deregulation in the electricity market Texas only serves to increase competition and encourage greater opportunity for service affordable and reliable electricity.

Each of the protagonists of the electricity Detailed market in Texas above are essential cogs in the wheel to ensure the energy generated in an efficient and profitable markets for wholesale and Retail stay with the consumer protection and fair business practices in mind, and ultimately, electricity reaches its final destination in a way safe, permanent and reliable.

About the Author

Bounce Energy is a Texas Electric Company based in Houston. Bounce Energy's goal is provide more than low Texas Electric Rates to our customers. With innovative and flexible plans, excellent customer service, and superior customer rewards, Bounce Energy offers a unique approach to Texas electricity.

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