Source: https://texreg.sos.state.tx.us/public/readtac$ext.TacPage?sl=R&app=9&p_dir=&p_rloc=&p_tloc=&p_ploc=&pg=1&p_tac=&ti=16&pt=2&ch=25&rl=272
Timestamp: 2019-06-24 18:13:06
Document Index: 390749646

Matched Legal Cases: ['§25', '§31', '§11', '§31', '§39', '§11', '§39', '§39', '§31', '§31', '§3', '§25', '§25']

RULE §25.272 Code of Conduct for Electric Utilities and Their Affiliates
(a) Purpose. The provisions of this section establish safeguards to govern the interaction between utilities and their affiliates, both during the transition to and after the introduction of competition, to avoid potential market-power abuses and cross-subsidization between regulated and unregulated activities.
<?Pub Caret -2> (b) Application.
(1) General application. This section applies to:
(A) electric utilities operating in the State of Texas as defined in the Public Utility Regulatory Act (PURA) §31.002(6), and transactions or activities between electric utilities and their affiliates, as defined in PURA §11.003(2); and
(B) transmission and distribution utilities operating in a qualifying power region in the State of Texas as defined in PURA §31.002(19) upon commission certification of a qualifying power region pursuant to PURA §39.152, and transactions or activities between transmission and distribution utilities and their affiliates, as defined in PURA §11.003(2).
(2) No circumvention of the code of conduct. An electric utility, transmission and distribution utility, or competitive affiliate shall not circumvent the provisions or the intent of PURA §39.157 or any rules implementing that section by using any affiliate to provide information, services, products, or subsidies between a competitive affiliate and an electric utility or a transmission and distribution utility.
(3) Notice of conflict and/or petition for waiver. Nothing in this section is intended to affect or modify the obligation or duties relating to any rules or standards of conduct that may apply to a utility or the utility's affiliates under orders or regulations of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) or the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). A utility shall file with the commission a notice of any provision in this section that conflict with FERC or SEC orders or regulations. A utility that is subject to statutes or regulations in any state that conflict with a provision of this section may petition the commission for a waiver of the conflicting provision on a showing of good cause.
(c) Definitions. The following words and terms when used in this section shall have the following meaning unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:
(1) Arm's length transaction--The standard of conduct under which unrelated parties, each acting in its own best interest, would carry out a particular transaction. Applied to related parties, a transaction is at arm's length if the transaction could have been made on the same terms to a disinterested third party in a bargained transaction.
(2) Competitive affiliate--An affiliate of a utility that provides services or sells products in a competitive energy-related market in this state, including telecommunications services, to the extent those services are energy-related.
(3) Confidential information--Any information not intended for public disclosure and considered to be confidential or proprietary by persons privy to such information. Confidential information includes but is not limited to information relating to the interconnection of customers to a utility's transmission or distribution systems, proprietary customer information, trade secrets, competitive information relating to internal manufacturing processes, and information about a utility's transmission or distribution system, operations, or plans for expansion.
(4) Corporate support services--Services shared by a utility, its parent holding company, or a separate affiliate created to perform corporate support services, with its affiliates of joint corporate oversight, governance, support systems, and personnel. Examples of services that may be shared, to the extent the services comply with the requirements prescribed by PURA §39.157(d) and (g) and rules implementing those requirements, include human resources, procurement, information technology, regulatory services, administrative services, real estate services, legal services, accounting, environmental services, research and development unrelated to marketing activity and/or business development for the competitive affiliate regarding its services and products, internal audit, community relations, corporate communications, financial services, financial planning and management support, corporate services, corporate secretary, lobbying, and corporate planning. Examples of services that may not be shared include engineering, purchasing of electric transmission facilities and service, transmission and distribution system operations, and marketing, unless such services are provided by a utility, or a separate affiliate created to perform such services, exclusively to affiliated regulated utilities and only for provision of regulated utility services.
(5) Proprietary customer information--Any information compiled by an electric utility on a customer in the normal course of providing electric service that makes possible the identification of any individual customer by matching such information with the customer's name, address, account number, type or classification of service, historical electricity usage, expected patterns of use, types of facilities used in providing service, individual contract terms and conditions, price, current charges, billing records, or any other information that the customer has expressly requested not be disclosed. Information that is redacted or organized in such a way as to make it impossible to identify the customer to whom the information relates does not constitute proprietary customer information.
(6) Similarly situated--The standard for determining whether a non-affiliate is entitled to the same benefit a utility offers, or grants upon request, to its competitive affiliate for any product or service. For purposes of this section, all non-affiliates serving or proposing to serve the same market as a utility's competitive affiliate are similarly situated to the utility's competitive affiliate.
(7) Transaction--Any interaction between a utility and its affiliate in which a service, good, asset, product, property, right, or other item is transferred or received by either a utility or its affiliate.
(8) Utility--An electric utility as defined in PURA §31.002(6) or a transmission and distribution utility as defined in PURA §31.002(19). For purposes of this section, a utility does not include a river authority operating a steam generating plant on or before January 1, 1999, or a corporation authorized by Chapter 245, Acts of the 67th Legislature, Regular Session, 1981 (Article 717 p, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes). In addition, with respect to a holding company exempt under the Public Utility Holding Company Act (PUHCA) §3(a)(2), the term "utility," as used in this section, means the division or business unit through which the holding company conducts utility operations and not the holding company as a legal entity.
(d) Separation of a utility from its affiliates.
(1) Separate and independent entities. A utility shall be a separate, independent entity from any competitive affiliate.
(2) Sharing of employees, facilities, or other resources. Except as otherwise allowed in paragraph (3), (4), (5), or (7) of this subsection, a utility shall not share employees, facilities, or other resources with its competitive affiliates unless the utility can prove to the commission prior to such sharing that the sharing will not compromise the public interest. Such sharing may be allowed if the utility implements adequate safeguards precluding employees of a competitive affiliate from gaining access to information in a manner that would allow or provide a means to transfer confidential information from a utility to an affiliate, create an opportunity for preferential treatment or unfair competitive advantage, lead to customer confusion, or create significant opportunities for cross-subsidization of affiliates.
(3) Sharing officers and directors, property, equipment, computer systems, information systems, and corporate services. A utility and a competitive affiliate may share common officers and directors, property, equipment, computer systems, information systems and corporate support services, if the utility implements safeguards that the commission determines are adequate to preclude employees of a competitive affiliate from gaining access to information in a manner that would allow or provide a means to transfer confidential information from a utility to an affiliate, create an opportunity for preferential treatment or unfair competitive advantage, lead to customer confusion, or create significant opportunities for cross-subsidization of affiliates
(4) Employee transfers and temporary assignments. A utility shall not assign, for less than one year, utility employees engaged in transmission or distribution system operations to a competitive affiliate unless the employee does not have knowledge of confidential information. Utility employees engaged in transmission or distribution system operations, including persons employed by a service company affiliated with the utility who are engaged in transmission system operations on a day-to-day basis or have knowledge of transmission or distribution system operations and are transferred to a competitive affiliate, shall not remove or otherwise provide or use confidential property or information gained from the utility or affiliated service company in a discriminatory or exclusive fashion, to the benefit of the competitive affiliate or to the detriment of non-affiliated electric suppliers. Movement of an employee engaged in transmission or distribution system operations, including a person employed by a service company affiliated with the utility who is engaged in transmission or distribution system operations on a day-to-day basis or has knowledge of transmission or distribution system operations from a utility to a competitive affiliate or vice versa, may be accomplished through either the employee's termination of employment with one company and acceptance of employment with the other, or a transfer to another company, as long as the transfer of an employee from the utility to an affiliate results in the utility bearing no ongoing costs associated with that employee. Transferring employees shall sign a statement indicating that they are aware of and understand the restrictions and penalties set forth in this section. The utility also shall post a conspicuous notice of such a transfer on its Internet site or other public electronic bulletin board within 24 hours and for at least 30 consecutive calendar days. The exception to this provision is that employees may be temporarily assigned to an affiliate or non-affiliated utility to assist in restoring power in the event of a major service interruption or assist in resolving emergency situations affecting system reliability. Consistent with §25.84(h) of this title (relating to Reporting of Affiliate Transactions for Electric Utilities), however, within 30 days of such a deviation from the code of conduct, the utility shall report this information to the commission and shall conspicuously post the information on its Internet site or other public electronic bulletin board for 30 consecutive calendar days.
(5) Sharing of office space. A utility's office space shall be physically separate from that of its competitive affiliates, where physical separation is accomplished by having office space in separate buildings or, if within the same building, by a method such as having offices on separate floors or with separate access, unless otherwise approved by the commission.
(6) Separate books and records. A utility and its affiliates shall keep separate books of accounts and records, and the commission may review records relating to a transaction between a utility and an affiliate.
(A) In accordance with generally accepted accounting principles or state and federal guidelines, as appropriate, a utility shall record all transactions with its affiliates, whether they involve direct or indirect expenses.
(B) A utility shall prepare financial statements that are not consolidated with those of its affiliates.
(C) A utility and its affiliates shall maintain sufficient records to allow for an audit of the transactions between the utility and its affiliates. At any time, the commission may, at its discretion, require a utility to initiate, at the utility's expense, an audit of transactions between the utility and its affiliates performed by an independent third party.
(7) Limited credit support by a utility. A utility may share credit, investment, or financing arrangements with its competitive affiliates if it complies with subparagraphs (A) and (B) of this paragraph.
(A) The utility shall implement adequate safeguards precluding employees of a competitive affiliate from gaining access to information in a manner that would allow or provide a means to transfer confidential information from a utility to an affiliate, create an opportunity for preferential treatment or unfair competitive advantage, lead to customer confusion, or create significant opportunities for cross-subsidization of affiliates.
(B) The utility shall not allow an affiliate to obtain credit under any arrangement that would include a specific pledge of any assets in the rate base of the utility or a pledge of cash reasonably necessary for utility operations. This subsection does not affect a utility's obligations under other law or regulations, such as the obligations of a public utility holding company under §25.271(c)(2) of this title (relating to Foreign Utility Company Ownership by Exempt Holding Companies).
(e) Transactions between a utility and its affiliates.