PUC Needs to Ask Different Questions
At this morning’s PUC Open Meeting, the commissioners will discuss the Performance Credit Mechanism, or PCM, which I have described as Pretty (much a) Capacity Market.
In a memo filed yesterday, Chairman Gleeson laid out three questions for the commissioners to discuss:
Are they ready to set dates for workshops? (The first is already set for March 26)
Should the cost cap set by the Legislature be annual or a yearly average? (The law unambiguously says “annually,” page 25, line 8)
Should the ERCOT filing from last week “be the ‘implementation plan’ required by the Commission’s Order and Modified Memorandum adopting the PCM?”
The Legislature put guardrails (including the annual cost cap) on the PCM but did not require it be implemented. A Commission order can be easily set aside by another Commission order; they are not obligated to proceed.
They need to consider at least a few extra questions…