(item:0:Chairman Gleeson calls meeting to order) This meeting of the Public Utility Commission of Texas
will come to order. To consider matters that have been
duly posted with the Secretary of State for May 23,
2024. Good morning Shelah, Connie, Barksdale. I appreciate
the no tie. Thank you for following through. Um, so
we're going to do things a little out of order this
morning. First, Commissioner Glotfelty will not be
here. (item:0:Chairman Gleeson asks for motion to excuse Commissioner Glotfelty from today's proceeding and gives acknowledgement tomorrow's birthdays) So I would entertain a motion to excuse Commissioner
Glotfelty from today's proceeding. So moved. Second. Motion and second.
All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Motion prevails. And then
tomorrow is a very special day at the Commission. Commissioner
Cobos, David Smeltzer and Ramya all have birthdays tomorrow
so.
Smeltzer, I assume you think yours is the most important
but I'll.
Not in this group. It's ok, it is the most important.
So we're gonna take things a little out of order, like
I said. First, we're gonna get an update from CenterPoint
on restoration issue, uh restoration efforts. And then
we're gonna go to Closed Session to handle a few housekeeping
matters. So, if that's all right with everybody? Okay.
So now Jason, if you want to come up and um give
us an update on restoration efforts. I wanted to
tell you, I know I told you this privately. Everyone
I've talked to has said you all have done an amazing
job responding to an event that you couldn't really
prepare for. And the restoration effort by you, by the
locals that have aided you, and the mutual assistance
partners has just been tremendous. I've heard nothing
but good things. So, uh thank you for everything that
CenterPoint and your partners are doing. (item:0:CenterPoint's Jason Ryan on Houston area restoration efforts) Thank you
Chairman. Good morning Commissioners. Jason Ryan, Executive
Vice President at CenterPoint Energy. I appreciate
those remarks. We are still in emergency operations
going into Day 7 of this event. But it's important
to be here today. To share with you all what happened,
what we've done, what there is still yet to do, and
to share that with the public as well. So I appreciate
you allowing us to come here today. With your permission,
I am going to exit as soon as I'm over and go
back to our Emergency Operations Center. Absolutely. And also
uh I know it's Summer casual time. This is probably
not what that means, uh so pardon my appearance today.
I'm usually in this room in a suit. So uh first,
before I go into the prepared material that you have.
I want to say to the uh little over 27,000 customers
that are still out of power. We understand that
it's been a long 7 days. That it's been in excess
of 100 degrees in terms of a feels-like temperature,
and that we still have a lot of work to do. We
will work day and night until we finish the mission.
Secondly, I want to say for all the customers that
were privileged to serve in the Houston area. Many
had extensive damage to their homes, to their vehicles.
They were disrupted when they were getting ready for
graduation ceremonies this past weekend. They missed
other important things. Some of them lost their loved
ones. But they met our crews with smiles, with food,
with water, with ice cream at one location I was at,
and with smiles and with patience. And for that,
we appreciate all of our customers, uh and sticking
with us through this unprecedented event. Let me
uh talk about the um, uh events you can go through the
prepared material. So Thursday just before close of
business, the storm began impacting our area. The
uh sustained winds in the Northern part of the Houston
area were at about 110 miles an hour. That
is equivalent to a strong Category 2 hurricane. For
comparison purposes, Hurricane Ike made landfall in
2008 with exactly 110 miles an hour winds. We
had 12 days notice of Hurricane Ike to start preparing.
We had 15 minutes notice of this event. As you
know, it was not supposed to be dark yet, but the
skies quickly got dark and it was pretty terrifying
event. If you uh watch the, uh media coverage and
heard personal stories of people that were at uh
baseball games uh seeking shelter uh or on their
commute home. In the downtown area, there were straight
line winds in excess of 100 miles an hour as people
were waiting for buses to go home. The early reports
are that as many as 5,000 windows are out of downtown
buildings. Our own uh building downtown has more than
500 windows out, but just know that we are not conducting
emergency operations from there. So while we don't
know when we'll have access to our building again.
It doesn't uh it, it hasn't impaired our restoration
efforts. So uh going up to maybe Page 3 of the
slide deck, you see some representative photos of damage.
It doesn't show the true magnitude of the damage though.
Even though a picture uh speaks 1000 words, um video
would probably be better. Because if you can imagine
around each of those uh snapshots, uh homes completely
devastated by completely fallen trees. Trees on their
cars, every direction that you look at uh is just severe
damage. But I thought I'd give you some representative
photos there, so you can see the magnitude of the event.
As soon as the event happened we sent, sent out about
700 damage assessors and flew transmission routes with
a helicopter. So that we could understand the true magnitude
of this disaster, by that time it was dark. We
stood up our Emergency Operations Center at about uh
7pm that night, so shortly after the event.
The next uh photos on uh Slide 4. Show some of the
representative work that has been done. We called in
5,000 mutual assistance crews, uh 4000 line skills work,
workers and about 1,000 vegetation management workers.
To augment our 2,000 Houston area electric employees
to get this work done. We've restored about 140 miles
of impacted transmission lines. And we are in the process
of or have already restored about two, replaced 2,000
distribution poles. That were severely damaged during
the event.
On Slide 5, you see some pictures of uh staging
sites that we set up. You know, the benefit of a hurricane
uh advanced notice is that you can uh book hotels,
you can book food. You can get areas ready to receive
the thousands of people coming from uh more than 1000
miles away to help our communities. We stood those
up on Friday. And uh, uh wanna thank all of the
employees that uh got that work done. So that as soon
as the mutual assistance crews, they could safely um
be on boarded, rest and then get ready to do their
work. So the staging sites was incredibly important
part of our initial work.
On Page 6, there's some pictures of emergency generation
that was used uh also on Friday to start powering some
of the most critical facilities in the Houston area.
We use them to power Communications Center for police
departments, evidence lockers at police departments,
cooling centers for our communities. Ultimately, they
were used at a number of schools as well. I'm happy
to report that all but two schools in the Houston area
now have power, if they're able to take power. So schools
can open just in time to finish their year up this
week.
Page 7 shows a chart of uh restoration pace to
date. As you can see, we did lose power to 922,000
of our customers. That's about a third of the city
of Houston's, the region's customers. And we were able
to uh bring those numbers down through the work of
the mutual assistance crews on our own. To this
date with no serious injuries or fatalities. That's
probably the, the proudest accomplishment uh that I
can trust with you here today. And while these 5,000
men and women came to help us and our 2,000 crews also.
You know, are doing work under very difficult conditions in many
compact areas. As our community has gotten back to
uh daily life in most of those areas with heavy traffic
uh in in some parts. To do that safely every day, every
person, every day uh is incredibly important. And I
look forward to sending these crews home just as safe
as they arrived to help our communities.
Page 8 shows what our customers uh saw during this
event uh on our website. That gave them approximate
restoration times uh by area of town. We also uh
were able to communicate with customers where we have
uh their information through our power alert service,
and continue to uh urge customers to sign up for that
service. So that they can understand when their power
might come on uh during an outage.
Uh I, I want to thank the companies listed on Page
9. That is where many of the 5,000 mutual assistance
crews came from. I had the privilege to meet a number
of them. As they were taking breaks in the field from
the, uh the severe weather we've been having. Many of
them, just like many of our customers uh missed graduations
when we called them to come to Houston on Friday.
Missed other important family events, but that's what
we do in this industry, right? We put the community
first and I'm incredibly proud of all of those individuals
that came to help us. I wanna thank our employees.
I thanked our customers for their patience. I wanna thank
our employees. The men and women in the field have
done an incredible job with restoration. We have a
lot of work to do, but they've done an incredible job
so far. Most of our other employees that don't work
in the field every day are either in the field as crew
spokespersons. Answering customer questions so that
our crews can do their work. But make sure the customers
have their questions or they're manning the staging
sites. Providing security for those staging sites,
providing logistics support for those staging sites.
So know that all of our employees are in emergency
operations mode right now. Helping to help our crews
if we're not, the crews themselves do their job.
I'm also incredibly impressed that our employees have
the same urgency and focus on Day 7 as they did
on Day 1. It's incredibly important uh to continue
that focus as we finish our work. Because like I
said, there's still work left to do. Let me just kind
of summarize the work that we've done and, and
the work that's left to do. I'll start with the work
that's left to do, since that's what most people want
to understand. We have about 6,000 outages as of this
morning that are related to circuit level outages.
So think of circuits as the main traffic thoroughfares
in the city. That is the circuit. We have 6,000 outages
that are related to doing work on circuits. We have
about uh just under 20,000 outages that are fuse level
outages. Think of fuse level outages as arteries of
of roads that come off of those main roads that go
into your neighborhood. And so we have to restore
uh certain, uh those fuse level outages to restore about
20,000 more customers. And then we have about 5,000
outages that are related to uh transformer level work
that needs to be done. This is the work that's done
nearest to the home. So we are um working right
now around the clock to do that remaining work.
We also will have work to do after all the power is
back on, so I do want to stress that as well. There
are probably weeks or months of additional work to
be done once our outage number is approaching zero.
You know, there could be poles leaning that need
to be replaced even though the power is on. So we'll
be doing that uh for a period of time as well. So
there's more information about some of the work that's
been done. I won't belabor that uh here. And let me
close out by saying, that uh we know that it's incredibly
important for us to restore, restore our system. The
poles, the wires, the substation. That's only part
of restoring our community. So uh we have uh been
taking excess supplies that we've got uh for our staging
sites and delivering those to our communities. We've
so far delivered more than 20 tons of ice to our communities.
More than 20,000 bottles of water. More food than
I can count and we will continue doing that. We're
also supporting the organizations that support our
community. With founding grants uh announced yesterday
for a fund set up to hit, uh to help those hardest
hit. We know that uh restoring our community is more
than just our infrastructure and we're in it for the
long haul on both. So in closing for customers still
out, we know we have work to do and we will not
stop until we get the mission done.
(item:0:Chairman Gleeson's thoughts on CenterPoint's Houston area restoration efforts) Thank you, Jason. Again, I think commendable effort
um by all involved. I think it is important to also
note that the role that mobile gen played. In ensuring
that you know critical infrastructure, infrastructure
that's critical. For, you know, life um really played
a big role in this. And so, um and again great job.
Commissioners? (item:0:Commissioner Jackson's thoughts on CenterPoint's Houston area restoration efforts) Yeah, I'd just like to commend you.
I think for um, you know, what's kind of visible and
everybody sees. And the, and the way that you kind of
describe it, you know, the response. Is to me kind of
like classic in the world of what you should do in
terms of emergency response. So, you know, you came
together as a team. You committed the full resources
of the organization. You took thoughtful and deliberate
action, and the very last sentence you said is that
we're not gonna stop until the job is done. And I mean
that doesn't happen without planning ahead of time.
And that doesn't happen without a culture. You talked
about your safety and the safety of the workers. And
you know, that's something that is evolved over time
and is embedded in the organization. And the planning,
and the drills and the things that you do working with
emergency response in the various communities, you
know, during events like this. It, it all pays off.
And uh I think, you know, to me the, you know, the
thing that is, is kind of the, the highlight and to
me the most responsive. Is um what I kind of sense in
your presentation. Is that, you know, for us to be successful
as an organization, the community in which we operate
has to be successful. And so I think we're very fortunate
in Texas that we have um you know the, the men and
women and the leadership of CenterPoint. I know that
many others across the state. You know, we were on
the state operations call and Congressman Babin called
in and mentioned that. So I think it's recognized y'all
I think it's a tribute, you know, to the state
and how we come together. We care about one another.
You know, we think about these type of events. We can't
prevent them, but we can be prepared and we can respond.
So thank you for coming and making the presentation,
and just thanks for everything you do for the communities
across our state. Thank you Commissioner. (item:0:Commissioner Cobos' thoughts on CenterPoint's Houston area restoration efforts) Thank you Jason. And
I'd like to echo um Chairman Gleeson and Commissioner
Jackson's statements. I think this, your response to
an event that you really didn't have a warning for.
Just brought together all of your efforts that you
plan for and you um coordinate for. And the investments
you've made in infrastructure, but also in these mobile
gen units. And all of this is critically important
to have a cohesive, rapid response to these types of
events. And you know, your work um in restoring all
of these um customers has been tremendous. I really
appreciate all the communication. We've received
daily communication, but not just daily it seems like
hourly communication. So Patrick, thank you for all
of your emails and information. That's, it's been
extremely helpful to see where everything stands. And
so I commend you and your company, your team for all
of your hard work and in uh responding to this devastating
event. Yeah, you know, on small scale events you can
have a value hierarchy of what you're trying to restore.
You know, kind of the squeaky wheel gets the grease
here. The magnitude of this was such that, you know
everything was of high value. And so again, great job.
Thank you for the support. We'll report back when we're
done. Thanks Jason. Thank you.
Okay. So again before we go down the agenda, we're going
to break and go into Closed Session real quickly. (item:46:Chairman Gleeson pauses Open Meeting, to hold Closed Session) So
having convened in a duly noticed open meeting. The
Commission will now at 9:50am on May 23, 2024
hold a Closed Session, pursuant to Chapter 551 of the
Texas Government Code. It will consult with its attorney
pursuant to Section 551.071 of the code. Deliberate
personnel matters pursuant to Section 551.074 of the
code and deliberate security matters pursuant to Section
551.076 of the code. We'll be right back.
(silence)
(item:46:Chairman Gleeson concludes Closed Session, Public Meeting resumed) The Closed Session is hereby concluded at 10:28am
on May 23, 2024 and the Commission will resume its
Public Meeting. So the only action coming out of this
this is probably one of the easier things we'll ever
have to do. It may be the easiest honestly. And I don't
know if it's because she has good karma or bad. (item:46:Motion to promote Connie Corona to Executive Director) But,
but I, I move that we promote Connie Corona to Executive
Director. Remove the interim tag and set the E.D salary
of $245,579 for the remainder of this fiscal year.
And I second that motion. A motion and a second. All
those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Congratulations
Connie. As you have all heard me say before and is typical
of jobs I leave. The people that replace me are always
a lot better at them than I am. And um, I have
no doubt that we may, we may have, we have one other
former Executive Director in the room. Um but uh
I'm extreme, I'm very excited. And um I, I don't think
there could be any question that you're the right person
for this job. And I'm excited to see all the great
things you do in it.
(item:46:PUC's Executive Director Connie Corona's thoughts on her promotion) Thank you Commissioners. I'm, I'm honored and
I appreciate your confidence and the support of the
team here. It's the best group of uh staff that
we have in an, in an agency for working for Texans.
So I appreciate that. If uh if I may, I'd like
to go ahead and make my E.D. update um under Item No.
39. 39? Let me check.
43. 43. (item:43:Chairman Gleeson opens up item for update from Executive Director) We'll call up Item 43.
As you know, the position of Deputy Executive Director
has recently been vacated. (item:43:Connie Corona names Barksdale English new Deputy Executive Director)So I would like to name
and I am naming Barksdale English as the Deputy Executive
Director of this agency effective immediately. Congratulations
Barksdale. See and, and I thought you just sat up there because
you got into the meeting before David did.
(inaudible)
(item:43:Connie Corona gives announcement on TX Energy Fund) Also, I would like to make an announcement regarding
the Texas Energy Fund. A simple reminder that next
week on May 31st, which is a week from tomorrow. The
window closes to submit a notice of intent to apply
for a Texas Energy Fund Loan. Currently, I believe
we have 10 applications that have completed the process.
Numerous others are in progress. And um we look forward
to getting those applications, full applications in
beginning June 1st. So please get those NOIs complete
and let me know if y'all have any questions. Thank
you, Connie and Congratulations Barksdale. Okay. All right
Shelah, so now we'll start the regular order of business.
Would you walk us through the consent agenda, please?
Yes, Commissioners and Chairman. Let's see. The Chairman
filed a memo in Project No. 52761. Stating that
he is recused from items 10, 16, 17 and 18. (item:0.1:Shelah Cisneros with Commission Counsel lays out Consent Agenda) By individual
ballot, the following items are placed on your consent
agenda: Items 1, 3 through 9, 11 through 13, and 15 through
19. And also by individual ballot, the Commissioners
voted to place items 21, 23 and 39 on the consent agenda
and no one signed up to speak on these items. Thank
you, Shelah. (item:0.1:Chairman Gleeson asks for motion to approve items on Consent Agenda) I would entertain a motion to approve
the consent items laid out by Shelah.
So moved. So moved. Second. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor, say aye.
Aye. Motion prevails. All right, so Item 1 was consented.
So that brings us to Item No. 2. Shelah, will
you lay out Item No. 2 please? Yes, sir. (item:2:Application of Gideon Water LLC for a CCN in Montgomery County) Item
2 is Docket No. 53485. This is the application
of Gideon Water LLC for a certificate of convenience
and necessity in Montgomery County. The Commission
issued a notice of approval in this proceeding on July
31, 2023. Subsequently between October of 2023 and
April of this year, there were numerous filings from
Commission Staff and orders from the Administrative
Law Judge. Before you is a joint appeal of Order No.
21 filed by Commission Staff and Gideon Water. Order
No. 21 denied the party's motion for reconsideration
Order No. 20. Order No. 20 denied the party's
motion for an order nunc pro tunc and motion to reopen the record.
And Chairman Gleeson filed a memo in this docket.
(item:2:Chairman Gleeson lays out his memo) So like Shelah said, filed a memo in this. I'll be honest
I had never heard the phrase nunc pro tunc before this
meeting. But again I, I would you know deny the appeal
of Order 21. I don't think that the nunc pro tunc applies
here unfortunately. This is not the outcome that I
want. I think it's the outcome that we're required
to land at. I'm in agreement as well. I would deny
the appeal. I'm in agreement as well. And so I think
before we vote, this is a cautionary tale to everyone.
Please review the tariffs, you know all parties, but
especially the, the applicant. Please review this, you
know, you have 25 days for a motion for rehearing where
we could have addressed this. And it's unfortunate
but I don't think we have any other remedy at this
point so. Chairman, may I also add to a request, a
special request for the parties to review the tariff
before it goes for approval in front of the Commission
or the A LJ. Thank you, Shelah. (item:2:Motion to deny the appeal of Order No. 21) With that, I would
entertain a motion to deny the appeal of Order No.
21.
So moved. I second. Motion and second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye.
Motion prevails. All right.
So next up is so I'm recused from Item 10. So we'll
come back to that. So we'll take up Item No. 14.
Shelah, will you lay that out please? Yes. (item:14:Application of the City of San Antonio/(CPS Energy), to amend CCN in Bexar County) Item 14
is Docket No. 55728. This is the application of
the City of San Antonio acting by and through CPS Energy.
To amend its certificate of convenience and necessity
for a proposed 138 KV transmission line project in
Bexar County. Before you is the proposed order that
addresses the unanimous agreement between the parties
to route the transmission line along Route S. The Commission
considered the proposed order at the April 11th meeting
and remanded the proceeding to docket management. To
allow the parties to file additional testimony in support
of Route S. Let's see. CPS Energy and Commission
Staff filed supplemental evidence that was admitted
into the record. And Chairman Gleeson filed a memo in
this docket. (item:14:Chairman Gleeson lays out his memo) So I don't know if you all may have been
given, given my, my previous comments you know around
unanimous agreements. You know, I'm still very supportive
of them. This one, I just wanted to kind of tease out
some of the issues. Because this one kind of seemed
a little different from ones that we've discussed before.
You know, most of the parties were in favor of Route
H and then settled on Route S.
You know, Route H is just a little more expensive but
has fewer habitable structures on it. So I really
just kind of want to tease this out and, and get y'all's
thoughts on this. Because I think, you know, absent
the, the settlement. I would probably go with H and
so I wanted to kind of hear your thoughts on, on this
route. (item:14:Commissioner Cobos' thoughts on memo) So um from my perspective like you I'm, I'm
really a supporter of, you know, encouraging parties
to enter into settlement agreements. And um favoring
um settlement agreements where, where they holistically
make sense. Because I think that creates efficiencies
not only for, for us but for the parties and, and um
achieving um resolution in a, in an efficient manner.
So we can move through these cases. Especially now
with the, you know, shorter CCN approval timeline.
But with that said I think as a Commission, you know,
as we try to encourage settlement and, and, and approve
settlement routes. You know, my perspective has been
also that unless there's something that we can identify.
That makes sense to move away from the settlement route
then I would approve a settlement agreement in this
case. I think what we're doing here and based on your
uh memo. Is that, you know, Route H has had a lot
of support. But it wasn't until his later stage
and settlement that um, the settlement Route S became
favorable and, and it leans towards future development.
And, and so my understanding is that predominantly
in the past, the Commission has leaned towards not
approving routes based on future settlement. And so
I, I, I see where you're coming from and would be in
favor of approving Route H. With that said, so that's
that's kind of where I'm at. I think these are, those
are extenuating circumstances. We're trying to set
precedent here as well. Not only are we trying to encourage
parties to settle, but we're also trying to set precedent
in terms of how we want to handle the CCN cases going
forward. Yeah, and I think we, we have precedent for
not making decisions based on future development. I
will say typically, we don't consider settlements
to be setting precedent. And so like I said, for me
this is a tough, this is a tough call. Which is why
I wanted to talk about it out here. Well, I'd be in
agreement with Route H as well. I mean, one of the things
that wasn't mentioned previously. Is apparently there
is um a, a college dormitory that's kind of at play
here. I think it's incumbent on us as a Commission
to kind of look out for, um for the, for the habitable
structures. And that was one of the criteria that I
guess, uh Route H has fewer habitable structures.
It also, uh you know, it's the shortest length across
the upland, um bridge land. And then, which is again
another criteria as well. As I guess what has been the
Commission precedent that um, you know, we don't,
you know, consider future development of undeveloped
property uh above existing constraints. And so with
that I would, I would favor, you know, what has you
noted in your memo. That um Route H which was, you know
the original route. That I think um was, was suggested
by CPS Energy as the one that we should land on.
So I think the, the right course of action given the
discussion here is probably to remand this back to
SOAH for additional processing, is that? That's correct. It
sounds like there's agreement. The Commission does
not approve the agreement in the proposed order. The
course of action will be to remand it to SOAH for further
processing and possibly a hearing on the merits. Okay. (item:14:Motion to remand docket to SOAH for further processing) Then
I would entertain a motion to remand this docket to
SOAH for further processing and if necessary a hearing
on the merits. So move. I second. Motion and second. All those
in favor, say aye. Aye. The motion prevails.
All right, I think that brings us through my part of
the contested case portion of this. So with that, I
will turn over to Commissioner Cobos to bring up Item
No. 10. All right. Thank you, Chair Gleeson. Shelah,
can you please lay out agenda Item No. 10 for us?
Yes, ma'am. (item:10:Application of the City of College Station to change rates for wholesale transmission service) Item 10 is Docket No. 52728. This is the
application of the City of College Station to change
rates for wholesale transmission service. The Commission
filed an order in this proceeding on April 11th. The
City of College Station then filed a request for clarification
and expedited ruling, and they filed a motion for rehearing.
The Commission voted to add the docket to this meeting
to consider the merits of the motion for rehearing.
And Commissioner Cobos filed a memo in this docket. All
right. Thank you, Shelah. (item:10:Commissioner Cobos lays out her memo) So basically my memo, uh
would grant rehearing for a limited purpose. Only of
making uh, some changes to the order that we approved.
And those changes are mostly clarifications for accuracy
and completeness. I, as I noted in my memo. I'm
aware that the City of College Station filed a request for
clarification expedited ruling on April 23rd. That,
that filing um was outside of the motion for rehearing.
And so in order to allow parties to respond to what's
included in motions for rehearing, I would not act
on that um separate filing at this time. And so,
um, I would move forward in making those changes to
our order at this time. And have the Commission issue
out, I guess an order on rehearing.
I agree as well. All right. (item:10:Motion to grant rehearing) With that said, um I would
make, I would move to grant rehearing. For the limited
purposes of making the proposed changes set forth in
my memo to the Commission's order in this docket.
So you're making the motion? Yes. And I'll second. All right. All
in favor, say aye. Aye. Motion passes. Thank you. I will hand
the baton back over to Chair Gleeson. Thank you, Commissioner
Cobos. So that takes us through the contested case
portion of the agenda. So that brings us to Item No.
20, Public Comment. Shelah, did anyone sign up for general
public comment? Yes. (item:19:Shelah Cisneros confirms who has signed up for Public Comments) Commissioners, we have two people
that send up for comment. The first person may have
left the room I'm told, but I will call his name just
in case. Timothy Gore. Is Mr. Gore still here? All
right, I am told that he did leave. The second person
that signed up is Cyrus Reed.
Good morning, Cyrus. Good morning. First of all,
I'd like to say congratulations to the folks who have
new positions and also happy birthday to people who
are having birthdays tomorrow. (item:19:Sierra Club's Cyrus Reed on Project 56517 and timing of comments on rulemakings) And then I would like
to make oh, Cyrus Reed with the Sierra Club. Then
I'd like to make a public announcement that um, is
it 10:43. Folks have one hour and 17 minutes to make
comments in what I think is one of the most important
projects, 56517. Which has to do with energy efficiency
and residential demand response and implementation
of SB1699. I think there are about 14 comments uh
filed so far. So I, I hope that you'll uh I
hope your staff will read them, but I hope you'll also
read them. And then um I wanted to talk in, in
less than probably a minute um about the importance
of timing uh on these comments and on any subsequent
rulemaking. So the utilities have already filed
their energy efficiency plans for '24 and '25. And you
guys will be getting their plans on how to pay for
those, the EECRFs by June 1. Which means you'll
be making decisions later this year on the amount of
funding that goes into those plans after, you know
contested cases, etcetera uh pretty soon. So in terms
of timing, if you want to influence what happens in
those plans, we almost have to get started pretty darn
soon. On any rulemaking that you wish to do to improve
those energy efficiency programs. That is separate from
1699, 1699. And I think our view and in many others
view is not only what the utilities do. It's how do
we enable demand, residential demand response in the
whole market. So it's not, it's not only on these folks
to do those programs. It's on the REPs and the munis and
the co-ops and everybody else. That will also require
some rulemaking. But my point is there's no time like
the present to pretty soon uh start some uh proposed
rule making on both 1699 and improving the energy efficiency
programs. So that we can influence what happens next
year. And if that's not possible, at least be in place
to, to influence what happens in 2026. So that, that's
my public service announcement and I'll give my 45
seconds back, and a happy answering questions. Thank
you. Thank you, Cyrus. Questions? Thank you.
Okay. (item:28:Chairman Gleeson lays out Project No. 55000) So I think that will bring us to Item 28. That
is Project 55000- Performance credit mechanism. Staff
filed a memo, so Werner who isn't here. Harika, Chris good
morning.
Doing other very important regulatory work.
This is Harika Basaran with Staff. Chris Brown, Staff. (item:28:Commission Staff's Harika Basaran announces Chris Brown's promotion) I
just have announcement as well since we had a good
news announcement today. We just recently promoted
Chris Brown as the Manager of our new Data Analysis
team. So we are very happy and excited about that.
(inaudible)
(item:28:Commission Staff's Chris Brown lays out Staff's filed memo) Good morning Commissioners. So staff filed a memo
a little backwards here and talk about the attachment
to that memo. That describes staff's current opinion
on each of the design parameters for the PUCM. And
broadly what we try to do here is provide staff's current
thoughts, opinions on each and divide the parameters
into three categories. Those locked by Legislative
mandate. Those locked by previous Commission decision
and then open items. And then among the open items
there's two subcategories. So there are some parameters
for staff believes that we can lock in a particular
value. And for others, we believe further consideration
and input is merited. And the memo provides a list
of questions for comment that are focused on these
parameters in particular. And so for this open meeting
we're looking for the Commission to support the recommended
questions. And if this list is approved today, interested
parties will have until June 20th to provide feedback
to these questions. And also support staff recommendations
for items that can be locked in addition to Legislative
mandate or prior Commission decisions. And then just
as an add on. This attachment that I've referred to
will be included with the questions for reference,
for stakeholder comments. And with that, any questions
you may have. Thank you, Chris. And again thanks Harika,
Chris, all the staff for the work on this.
(item:28:Chairman Gleeson's thoughts on Commission Staff's memo) I was good with the the different buckets. You put
everything in the parameters that have been decided
either by statute or Commission decision I think is
appropriate. Thank you for taking feedback on the questions
as well before you filed this. And I thought it was
a comprehensive list. I would ask that uh commenters
adhere to the page limit. I think we set it at 15
pages plus an executive summary page. But yeah,
I was, I was good with with what staff laid out in
their memo. Happy to hear y'all's thoughts.
(item:28:Commissioner Cobos' thoughts on Staff's memo) I mean generally speaking, I'm fine with the um buckets
as well. And um the questions I think these are important
questions we have to ask. I think ultimately um, you
know, we had some discussions on various parts of the
questions and seasons, hours, all that. It's gonna
be very important that we get substantive feedback
um from the stakeholders. So we can um determine the
appropriate parameters to run the updated cost assessment
on. So, um eager to see what we get back. And um
thank you. (item:28:Commissioner Jackson's thoughts on Staff's memo) I felt like the questions were very comprehensive
as well. I particularly like the kind of the lineup
and the organization. Because I think, you know, anytime
you get to the end of a project, the question is naturally
well how did we get here? And so you get confidence
in the final report based on how well you feel like
that you've executed the process, right? And so I think
you know, coming up with um the process that you did
the three buckets. You asked specifically, you know
if we had uh how, how we felt about those things that
staff recommended the lock on. And I'm good with all
of those that you outlined in the um in the the, the
attachment. Um look forward to hearing, you know, the
stakeholder feedback. And, you know, very glad that
we have a data analytics team that's slating this effort.
Again, you know, to me it's about the data and the
science and also, you know, how can we make something
um that is, you know, a potential, you know, part of
the solution moving forward. Be something that's
adaptable and that we can have a very, you know, clear
way of defining what the benefits are and the cost
moving forward. So I appreciate it. Perfect.
I think that's right. Yeah, I think you've got your
support. Thanks y'all, appreciate it. Thank you, Chris.
So I think that concludes everything on this open meeting.
I will say, you know, just in closing that this
was, this will be a memorable open meeting for me.
I'm very excited for Connie again to see this. I think
you know, palms down or hands down. Probably the um
you know, one that I'll always remember and you get
to come back in a few weeks. Unlike our, our kids who
you know, school is out for summer as of today. We
get to come back in three weeks and, and do this all
over again. So again Connie, Barksdale congratulations.
I'm extremely excited as we head through the rest of
this interim and into the, the next Legislative Session.
To see all the great work that you all are going to
do leading staff. So thanks for stepping up and taking
those positions. Thank you. Okay. (item:46:Chairman Gleeson adjourns meeting) With there being
no further business before us today, this meeting of
the Public Utility Commission is hereby adjourned.