The law establishes the pilot program to evaluate the ability of investor-owned utilities and power regions to provide customer choice. The full rollout of retail competition begins Jan. 1, 2002. In preparation for the pilot, several new REPs have been marketing electricity at discounted prices to both residential and commercial customers for service beginning June 2001. So far nearly 50,000 Texas households are signed up for the pilot project. When a switch is made, the only thing we want customers to notice is the new provider and the new bill level.
Early results show more fine-tuning is needed before customers can be switched.
As a result, customers won't be switched to new REPs until July. We want to be fast, but we insist on getting it right. The pilot program will earn that confidence without compromising Texas' electric system adequacy and reliability. By July 6, the system is expected to handle approximately 21,000 switches a day. A switch request takes approximately two weeks to process, including the customer notification mandated by PUC customer protection rules to prevent unauthorized switching, or slamming.