Opinion ID: 1984632
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Comparability

Text: HL & P also argues that the access fee violates PURA95's mandate that the rates a utility charges for wholesale transmission service be comparable to its own use of its system. The Commission maintains that the fee is consistent with the comparability requirement because each utility pays itself for transmission service at the same rate as others pay it for the same service. HL & P points out, however, that the rates set by the access fee are not comparable to the existing rates charged retail customers. Those rates are based on a utility's own invested capital and costs. [92] The access fee, on the other hand, is based on the aggregate of all uses and costs in the ERCOT grid. Thus, the access fee is not based on a utility's use of its own system, as the statute contemplates. Nor is it comparable to what a utility charges its retail customers for service. For these reasons, the access fee also violates section 35.004(a)'s comparability requirement.