Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has signed SB 1976, which authorizes a process for the PUC and Health and Human Services Commission to develop a list of low-income customers eligible for certain customer protections that REPs are required to provide. However, such list shall only be developed if requested by a REP and funded by such REP

Subst. R. §25.478(e)(3) requires that REPs provide the ability to pay a deposit in installments for customers who "qualify" for the low-income rate reduction program (Lite-Up, funded by the SBF, which is now defunct). Subst. R. §25.480(c) prohibits REPs from charging a late payment fee to a customer "receiving" the low-income discount.

With the elimination of the Lite-Up program, the PUC's authorization to exchange information with the Health and Human Services Commission, which determined Lite-Up eligibility, was clouded

SB 1976 as enrolled provides that:

(a) The Health and Human Services Commission, on request of the commission (PUC), shall assist in developing an automatic process for identifying low-income customers to retail electric providers and certificated telecommunications utilities to enable those providers and utilities to offer customer service, discounts, bill payment assistance, or other methods of assistance

(b) The commission (PUC) and the Health and Human Services Commission shall continue the memorandum of understanding entered into by those agencies in effect on January 1, 2017, that establishes the respective duties of those agencies in relation to the automatic process, and may amend the memorandum of understanding as necessary to achieve the goals of this section.

(c) The commission (PUC) may not require a retail electric provider or a certificated telecommunications utility to offer customer service, discounts, bill payment assistance, targeted bill messaging, or other benefits for which the provider or utility is not reimbursed.

(d) The commission (PUC) may not submit a request to the Health and Human Services Commission to provide for a process to identify low-income electric customers for a fiscal year unless:

  (1) the commission (PUC) receives a request from one or more retail electric providers not later than July 31 of the previous fiscal year for a list of low-income electric customers to be developed; and

  (2) each retail electric provider that submits a request to the commission under Subdivision (1) agrees to reimburse the commission for the cost of development of the list on terms agreed to by the commission and the provider.

The PUC has opened project 47261 to implement the bill