City of Lubbock Designates Safety Net Retail Electric Providers

Lubbock City Council approved two resolutions designating Reliant Energy Retail Services LLC, TXU Energy Retail Company LLC and Octopus Energy LLC as safety net providers for Lubbock Power & Light’s (LP&L) service area upon its entry into retail competition in late 2023. The resolution follows the recommendation from the LP&L Electric Utility Board, in accordance with Public Utility Com mission of Texas guidelines.

Of the many major tasks involved in transitioning to competition, safety net providers are paramount to ensure no customer is left without electric service in the event they miss the initial shopping window, or their provider cannot continue service.

“Over the past few months, a special committee reviewed extensive material and conducted numerous interviews with the finalists of our public bid process in order to pick the best suited companies to perform the important task of safety net provider for Lubbock ratepayers,” LP&L Director Joel Ivy said. “While we hope all customers will take the opportunity to pick their new provider when the time comes, this is an important step in the process to migrate all LP&L customers to the retail electric market later this year.”

Customers who do not choose a retail electric provider within the designated shopping period, slated for late summer 2023, will be assigned to one of three Default Retail Electric Providers (DREP): Reliant Energy, TXU Energy or Octopus Energy. DREP is a one-time, short-term designation for the providers, meant to address the initial move to competition.

The same three entities will serve as long-term Voluntary Retail Electric Providers (VREP) in the event a customer’s chosen retail electric provider is no longer able to continue service.

In both situations, the three providers will charge market-based rates for DREP/ VREP electric service in line with Public Utility Commission of Texas processes. Customers assigned to the provider under either of these circumstances will have the option to switch to another plan or provider of their choice at any time with- out penalty.

In the rare event a chosen retail electric provider or VREP is unable to provide service, per the approved resolution, Reliant Energy is designated as the Provider of Last Resort (POLR). The POLR must be willing to accept an unknown electric load and number of customers at any given point, therefore this service is typically higherpriced and meant to be a temporary, short-term solution.

Safety Net Provider

Selection

A committee evaluated and ranked the qualifications based on procedures and criteria for DREP, VREP and POLR, previously adopted by the Electric Utility Board and City Council. Evaluation criteria included:

• Responses on the questionnaire (30%);

• Ranking of market share in ERCOT (50%);

• Product offerings specifically designed for low-income customers (10%); and

• Community involvement in cities you currently serve (10%).

LP&L received 11 responses and invited the top four offerors for an interview to submit and demonstrate their competence, experience and qualifications for their company in providing these services. Reliant Energy, TXU Energy and Octopus Energy ranked among the top three across all designations.

The Year of Competition

In May 2023, LP&L will move the remaining 30% of its customers still connected to the Southwest Power Pool over to the ERCOT market pending regulatory approval by the Public Utility Commission of Texas. Once 100% of customers are migrated to the ERCOT market, the countdown to competition will begin.

LP&L will work with registered providers to hold open-house events where customers can meet the providers and learn more about available electric service plans. Customers will have an opportunity to shop for and select a provider of their choice in the late summer of this year.

Once transitioned to their selected providers, LP&L will become what is commonly referred to as a “wires company” focused solely on maintaining the electrical infrastructure across Lubbock. This is the same business structure as other service providers such as Oncor, CenterPoint Energy and AEP Texas. City of Lubbock Utilities will continue to provide billing and day-to-day customer service for the city utility departments including water/wastewater, stormwater and solid waste, just as it currently does.

Project Manager

Duties: For the Department of Institutional Research, duties include: Analyze and interpret statistical data to identify significant differences in relationships among sources of institutional data, checking for unreasonable variance and other anomalies. Identify relationships and trends in data, as well as any factors that could affect the results of research including defining data requirements, gathering, and validating information, applying judgment and statistical tests. Formulate mathematical or simulation models of problems, relating constants and variables, restrictions, alternatives, conflicting objectives, and their numerical parameters. Evaluate the statistical methods and procedures used to obtain data to ensure validity, applicability, efficiency, and accuracy of institutional data. Provide support for administration’s decisionmaking processes with analysis and data visualizations using statistical modeling and software. Analyze information obtained from management to conceptualize and define operational problems and evaluate sources of information to determine any limitations, in terms of reliability or usability. Provide written summaries of detailed data analysis for university administrators. Report results of statistical analyses into cohesive reports for administration. Perform validation and testing of models to ensure adequacy and reformulate models, as necessary. Prepare data for processing by organizing information, checking for inaccuracies, and adjusting and weighting the raw data to collaborate with others in the organization to ensure successful implementation of chosen problem solutions. Process large amounts of data for statistical modeling and graphic analysis, using computers based on detailed knowledge of math, statistics, and statistical software.

Qualifications: Bachelor's degree in Data Science or related field plus three (3) years related experience. A master's degree plus one (1) year related experience is an alternative job requirement.

Preferred Qualifications: Experience in institutional research, business analytics, or related field. Experience in higher education. Intermediate skills in a statistical Software and excel.

EEO/AA/Vet/Disability; apply online at www.workattexastech. com; req#32278BR

Programmer Analyst III

Lubbock, TX. Texas Tech UniversityInstitutional Research

Duties: For the Texas Tech University Institutional Research department, the Programmer Analyst III is expected to exercise discretion and independent judgment in the performance of the following duties: Write, test, analyze and maintain programming code. Write ad hoc reports using Cognos. Understand Data Warehouse concepts, design and maintain databases and web applications (created by software developers & engineers). Report from Relational Data Base System environment and troubleshoot report logic. Consult with managerial staff to clarify program intent, identify problems, and suggest changes. Complete other programming tasks, as assigned by management.

Qualifications: Bachelor's degree in computer science, management information systems, information technology, or other related area plus three (3) years related full-time paid experience required. A master's degree plus one (1) year related full-time paid experience is an alternative job requirement.

Preferred Qualifications: Understanding of web applications in ASP.NET and Oracle/SQL or similar platform. Experience in writing ad hoc reports using Cognos or similar business intelligence tool. Experience with database design and data warehouse development. Experience with Ellucian Banner ERP. Proficiency in computer programming through education or experience.

EEO/AA/Vet/Disability; apply online at www. workattexastech.com; req#32275BR