Agency Operations
The Agency Operations division is the administrative backbone to the PUCT and has several departments within the division that play an integral role to the everyday operations of the agency. The departments are as follows:
Agency Counsel
Agency Counsel provides advice and guidance relating to legal matters affecting the operation of the agency in order to minimize risk, facilitate decision-making, and ensure compliance. The division coordinates the agency's public information act responses, advises on the agency's contracts, assists with the development of internal policies, conducts internal investigations in order to advise executive management, and provides training to agency employees on legal compliance matters. The division also provides advice on special projects as assigned.
Central Records
Central Records receives and processes filing submissions for cases before the Commission. Staff members assist customers, utility representatives, the general public, and staff with filing documents on docketed cases and ongoing agency projects.
Filed documents include pleadings, testimony and briefs, affidavits, requests for information, rulemakings, registrations, tariffs, certificates of convenience and necessity, sale, transfer, and mergers, interconnection agreements, ADAD's, and annual reports. Adhering to PUCT Procedural rules 22.71 and 22.72, staff reviews filings and also evaluates documents for compliance with Federal and State Privacy Laws prior to Central Records processing. Central Records processes confidential materials, workshop and Open Meeting transcripts, and agency publications, and works with the Financial Resources division on billing and payments for registrations, copies and publications.
Central Records is also responsible for records management and retention. The purpose of the PUCT Records Management Policy is the practice of identifying, classifying, archiving, preserving, and destroying records in accordance with the provisions of the Texas Government Code, Texas Administrative Procedure Act, the Administrative Rules of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC), and the PUCT's Records Retention Schedule (RRS). Central Records oversees the preparation and maintenance of the agency's RRS, the approval of all records transferred to the State Records Center, and all requests to dispose of state records
Financial Resources
Financial Resources is a critical backbone for the Commission and one of the many facets of the Commission's Operations Division. Tasked with a plethora of assignments, much of Financial Resources' work goes on behind the scenes. The invaluable staff of the Financial Resources department care for all of their activities, making sure the PUCT remains in compliance with Texas state laws, Texas Comptroller requirements and Legislative requirements.
The following is a listing of duties of the Financial Resources department:
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Human Resources
The Human Resources Department develops and implements activities and programs related to recruitment, staffing, employment, employee classification, compensation and benefits, risk management, as well as employee relations, employee assistance, diversity, employee recognition, and training on human resources policies.
IT staff provide support for the technological needs of the PUCT commissioners, executive management, and agency staff members. IT contains several individual workgroups.
The Information Technology staff support the agency desktop environment by installing, maintaining, and troubleshooting workstation software and hardware, and optimizing staff's ability to use their computer resources.
The Application Development and Web team create software applications and update internal and external webpages and websites.
The Network specialist is responsible for maintaining network documentation, developing standards and guidelines, and addressing network and security capacity.
The Inventory Management team ensures that incoming assets are properly tagged for inventory control according to inventory management process and Texas Comptroller requirements. Agency purchases are examined and then received in the Comptroller's CAPPS system. Appropriate assets are tagged when necessary, and then delivered to the proper department.
Facilities Management and the PUCT Help Desk oversee daily building management. Working closely with the Texas Facilities Commission, Facilities s supervises construction and maintenance efforts throughout all PUCT office space in the WBT building.
Library
The PUCT Library offers a dynamic research collection of books, periodicals, technical standards, legislative and government documents, newspapers, and online databases pertaining to law, energy regulation, electricity, water, telecommunications, engineering and utility finance. The PUCT Librarian is experienced in legislative, energy, business and financial research and assists commissioners, staff and the public with variety of inquiries.
Careers in Agency Operations include:
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"I love working for PUCT because I have always been treated with respect. What I love and appreciate about my division is that I am faced with daily tasks that continue to be challenging from ongoing customers' requests and I feel like management trusts my decisions and supports me in my daily work."
Compliance and Enforcement
Compliance and Enforcement investigates and litigates potential violations of PURA, the Commission's substantive and procedural rules, NERC Reliability Standards, and ERCOT Protocols to promote adherence to customer protection requirements for consumers of electricity, water, and sewer services; maintenance of a reliable and safe electric power system; access to competitive telecommunications services; and access to and preservation of a competitive wholesale electricity market.
Careers in Compliance and Enforcement include:
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Consumer Protection
The Consumer Protection Division (CPD) is the face of the agency, our main focus is to protect consumers, we do so by assisting Texans with their Electric, Telephone, Water & Sewer services, the Texas No-Call list and by operating and maintaining the Power to Choose website.
CPD is 4 teams that work together:
- Intake Center: This is the frontline of CPD, this team takes incoming calls from Texans, assisting them with their questions and concerns, and helping consumers in areas open to electric competition with our Power to Choose website. They take complaints and answer questions about billing, services and concerns. They also process all incoming online complaints, mail and scan paper documents.
- Investigations: This team processes all informal complaints brought to the commission, dealing with Electric, Telephone, Water & Sewer, No-call, and Non-Jurisdictional issues. They act as a type of mediator to reach a quick resolution for Texans informal complaints. We maintain a 99% success rate of resolving Texans issues.
- Licensing & Compliance: This team works to make sure all companies are registered with the PUCT and are in compliance with our rules. They work with ERCOT to ensure Electric companies are current with all applicable rules and help facilitate any customer transfers as companies enter and exit the market.
- Consumer Education: All of CPD is involved with consumer education on a daily basis in the natural course of the work we do. We also participate in community outreach by attending select events around the state and by providing educational material to schools and civic organizations.
- We also maintain the Power to Save website.
Careers in the Consumer Protection include:
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Executive Director
The departments in the Executive Director's division are as follows:
Critical Infrastructure Security and Risk Management
The Critical Infrastructure Security and Risk Management department collaborates with utilities to ensure that cyber and physical security best business practices are utilized, provides emergency management assistance and coordination, and connects utilities to available state and federal resources.
Governmental Relations
The PUCT's Governmental Relations department centralizes and facilitates the Commission's communications with the Texas Legislature, Legislative offices, constituents, and other agencies.
Internal Audit
Internal auditing (IA) helps the PUCT accomplish its objectives by bringing a systematic, disciplined approach to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of risk management, control, and governance processes.
IA provides independent analyses, appraisals, and recommendations about the adequacy and effectiveness of a state agency's system of internal control policies and procedures and the quality of performance in carrying out assigned responsibilities.
IA assurance services include audits categorized as: financial, compliance, economy and efficiency, effectiveness, and investigations.
Consulting services are also provided by IA offering advisory and related program activities, the nature and scope of which are agreed upon with the agency management and are intended to add value and improve an organization's operations. Consulting services include counsel, advice, facilitation, and training.
Careers in the Executive Director's division include:
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"Working at the PUCT is not just another job, it is gaining a new family, people that are great to work with and really care about the work they do."
Infrastructure
The Infrastructure Division addresses infrastructure planning, construction, operations, maintenance, and service quality in the electric and water industries, as well as some telecommunications infrastructure issues. The work of the division includes testimony and recommendation memos in dockets; rulemakings; complaint resolution; geographic information system mapping for water and sewer utility service areas; oversight of the Commission's evaluation, management, and verification contractor for electric utility energy efficiency programs; and Electric Reliability Council of Texas issues, including electric-gas coordination. The division has two sections: Engineering and Infrastructure Analysis and Mapping.
Engineering Section
The Engineering Section addresses the need for and routing of electric transmission lines in certificate of convenience and necessity (CCN) dockets and engineering issues in electric generation CCN dockets. In addition, the section addresses capital costs and operations and maintenance expenses in electric and water utility rates cases as well as depreciation in water utility rate cases. The section also addresses electric reliability issues and complaints about the cost of obtaining service from water utilities.
Infrastructure Analysis and Mapping Section
The Infrastructure Analysis and Mapping Section addresses the need for water and electric utility service area changes as well as water utility purchases. In addition, the section addresses distressed water utilities, including the capital costs and operations and maintenance expenses incurred by temporary managers of those utilities. The section also addresses depreciation and weather normalization in electric utility rate cases; electric utility fuel and purchased power costs; electric utility energy efficiency programs; electric utility advanced metering systems; and telephone area codes and other numbering resource issues.
Careers in Infrastructure include:
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"The PUCT is a great way to impact all Texans' lives for the better. I enjoy working on dockets where my division needs to make a public interest determination. To me, that is the heart of the PUCT's mission. I also know anyone in my division is willing to answer questions and discuss challenging issues to help frame better policy positions. Our successful teamwork translates to improving the lives of Texans. I am very grateful to work with such kind and talented people in the Infrastructure Division."
Legal
The Legal division represents the public interest in contested cases before the State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH) and the Commission. The division also provides legal and policy advice to agency staff and the Commissioners.
Careers in Legal include:
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"I have worked in a lot of places, but it's rare to find such a nimble state agency full of such smart and knowledgeable people who are genuinely committed to the notion of public service. I genuinely love working here."
Market Analysis
The Market Analysis division oversees electric markets subject to competition. Market Analysis monitors compliance with rules relating to the operation of the retail and wholesale electricity markets within the ERCOT power region to ensure well-functioning markets, efficient prices, adequate generation capacity and customer protections.
Market Analysis supports the Commission's participation in a variety of proceedings before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to protect the interests of Texas Electric ratepayers and stakeholders. It also supports the Commission's participation in the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), Mid-Continent Independent System Operation (MISO) and Western Energy Imbalance Market (WEIM) activities to protect the interests of Texas ratepayers located in the non-ERCOT areas of Texas.
The division also tracks, monitors and reviews annual and semiannual reports, letters of credits filed by the REPs (Retail Electric Providers) to ensure financial compliance with the Commission rules
Careers in Market Analysis include:
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"The coolest part about my job at the PUCT is working and coordinating with other divisions to find solutions to tough challenges facing utilities. I love my division because we are the base for applications. We work together to complete applications and help each other when it comes to difficult applications."
Office of Policy and Docket Management
The Office of Policy and Docket Management division is split into two separate sections, Policy Development and Docket Management. The Policy Development section prepares paper for the Commissioner's review before an open meeting. The Docket Management section processes all new incoming cases that are filed at the Commission.
The OPDM division also processes orders that are generated out of the open meetings and sends dockets to the State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH) where they conduct hearings.
Careers in the Office of Policy and Docket Management include:
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"I have never had a better job than the one I have at the PUCT. The mission is satisfying, the people are driven and knowledgeable, and everyone has made me feel like we are all part of a large work family. I feel incredibly thankful to have a place at the PUCT and on my team."
Rate Regulation
The Rate Regulation division is the branch of the PUCT that is most involved in the agency's traditional regulatory rate-setting function. The Rate Regulation division consists of two sections: Financial Review and Tariff and Rate Analysis.
The Financial Review section includes staff members with educational backgrounds primarily in accounting and finance; these staff members evaluate the legitimacy and reasonableness of a utility company's expense levels and develop estimates of an appropriate rate of return on the utility company's capital investment.
The Tariff and Rate Analysis section includes staff members with educational backgrounds primarily in economics and finance; these staff members develop the specific rates that a utility company charges its customers and address issues related to the proper allocation of a utility's costs to different customer groups, such as residential, commercial, and industrial customers.
The Rate Regulation Division also leads and participates in various rulemaking proceedings and works on other projects involving rate-related issues for electric, water, and telephone utility companies.
Careers in Rate Regulation include:
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Rules and Projects
Rules and Projects is responsible for managing the Commission's rulemaking efforts. This involves coordinating staffing and subject matter expertise across the agency, establishing rulemaking priorities and timelines, leading individual rulemaking projects, responding to petitions for rulemaking, providing consistency and quality control across rulemakings, and refining the agency's rulemaking processes.
Careers in Rules and Projects include:
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"The intellectual caliber of the PUCT's work is rigorous, but rewarding - instead of a bottom line of profit, we're focused on improving lives for our fellow Texans. The complex projects that roll through the PUCT offer any employee ample opportunity to sharpen all parts of their skillset, and to add a host of new skills as well. All of this is done alongside the people at the PUCT -- a dedicated team of hardworking, smiling people who really believe in the mission of the agency and are committed to each other and the State of Texas."
Utility Outreach
The objective of DUO is to provide outreach to the regulated community, with an emphasis on small, medium and distressed retail utility providers. Outreach is defined as an activity of providing service to populations who might not otherwise have access to services. A key component of outreach is that the group providing the services is not stationary, but mobile; in other words, the group is meeting those in need of outreach either virtually or at the locations where those in need are located.
In addition to delivering services, outreach also has an educational role and raises awareness of existing services of the Public Utility Commission. The educational role of DUO focuses on providing information and training to retail water and sewer utilities on regulatory compliance and on preserving the financial and managerial integrity of the utility. DUO's outreach activities help the regulated community with customer relations, utility ratemaking concepts and filings, and service area matters including certificates of convenience and necessity (CCN) and sale/transfer/merger (STM) applications. DUO also helps distressed utilities and utilities involved with supervision, receivership or temporary management with reaching the end goal of becoming a viable retail public utility.
Careers in Utility Outreach include:
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"One of the things I love the most about working at the PUCT is that I work with people who are passionate about their jobs; they show up trying to do the right thing for Texans out there."