Electricity Market Structure
Retail electric competition was introduced in Texas in May 1999 after the State Legislature passed the Public Utility Regulatory Act of Texas, also known as Senate Bill 7. Enacted in January 2002, Senate Bill 7 empowers Texas industrial and commercial customers to choose from a wide range of retail electric providers (REPs), including Constellation NewEnergy, as certified by the Public Utility Commission of Texas. The legislation also enables customers to choose a price, terms, power quality and delivery options.
Soon after its enactment, many customers in Texas utility territories were switched to the retail affiliated REP, which was created by the former local electric utility to provide electricity services to customers under the pricing model known as Price to Beat (PTB). The PTB, regulated rate option expired for all customers in January 2007. At that time Texas became the first state with fully market-based competitive rates.
About Switching in Texas
As a retail electric provider in the State, Constellation NewEnergy is certified by the Texas Public Utility Commission. To be eligible to switch to our services, your company must be located in one or more of the service area territories of the following utilities:
- Texas Utilities (TXU) Electric Delivery
- American Electric Power (AEP)
- CenterPoint
- Texas New Mexico Power (TNMP)
- Sharyland Utilities
- Entergy Texas
The first step in switching your business' electricity service is completing a Letter Of Authorization for the Request of Historical Usage Information that allows Constellation NewEnergy to gather historical electricity usage data from your utility. This data is necessary to analyze your power consumption patterns and to develop a proposal that is customized to the needs of your business.
You will then sign a retail Electricity Supply Agreement stating the specific product your price for electric service and the duration of the agreement. After our agreement is signed, the enrollment process is simple. Our local operations team will work to provide a seamless transition from the utility as your electricity accounts are transferred to our service. Customers are generally switched to a competitive supplier on their next meter read/cycle date.
The utility must receive and accept notification to switch at least 7 days prior to the cycle date.
 authorization_TX_utilities.pdf
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Why Switch?