Competitive Retailer Relations

Nueces Electric Cooperative's Competitive Retailer (CR) Relations is the information source for Competitive Retailers who choose to offer their power supply to Nueces Electric Cooperative, Inc. (NEC) distribution service member-consumers.

As you sell your power supply to Nueces Electric Co-op members, we want to be sure that our partnership with you works smoothly and professionally. As an electric co-op, our top priority is to meet our members' needs in the most efficient and effective manner possible. Our business partners must share this dedication to exceeding our members' customer service expectations.

If you don't find the answers to your questions here, you may contact our CR Relations Manager.

NEC Access Tariff

Customer Protection Rules for CRs Operating in the NEC Service Area:

Get Started With NEC

Thank you for your participation in Texas Electric Choice testing to allow you to serve co-op members in the Nueces Electric Cooperative, Inc. (NEC) territory. As you know, electric cooperatives and municipal electric systems in Texas can “opt-in” or “opt-out” of retail electric choice. NEC has opted-in and has developed the systems and programming necessary to open its area to full retail competition as of June of 2006.

As the first electric cooperative in Texas to enter the competitive market, we recognize our electric choice system is different and impacts ERCOT processes, and competitive retailer systems for those who choose to offer their retail services in our territory. As a result, we have established CR Relations services to help work through any issues that may arise.

Below are the documents you need to get started with Nueces Electric Cooperative:

If you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail crrelations@nueceselectric.org or call 361-767-7305.

Again, we look forward to working with you to bring more retail choice to our member consumers.

Yours Sincerely,
Nueces Electric Cooperative, Inc.

Customer Education

Customer Education about Retail Choice in the NEC Service Area

It is NEC's goal to be able to offer its members a wide array of electric provider choices. It is NEC's responsibility to educate customers about electric choice in the NEC area.

Electric choice education for NEC customers is not provided by the Power-to-Choose website or call center. NEC will maintain and update choice education information for its members. NEC will direct new members to a website, an in-office display, and provide a telephone number where customers may obtain more information about their right to choose a power provider and information about the power provider options available to them.

CRs who plan to provide power to residential members in the NEC area MUST submit their residential electricity facts label for the NEC area, a short description of their product/service offering(s), and terms of service/your rights as a customer information to NEC, for inclusion on its website. The information must be in the PUCT's required EFL format and include pricing reflective of both the CR charges and the NEC delivery charges as detailed in the NEC access tariff. The CR must also provide customer service contact information for small and large commercial customers, if the CR plans to provide such product/services. A CR may voluntarily provide more information about small and large commercial offerings, if it chooses. RESIDENTIAL MOVE-INS AND SWITCHES WILL BE REJECTED UNTIL THIS INFORMATION IS PROVIDED TO NEC.

Information will be posted/ updated on the website within thirty (30) days of NEC’s receipt of the information from a CR.

NEC will provide a customer choice member education display at the NEC office (at 14353 Cooperative Ave, Robstown, TX 78380 and at its service centers). The display will hold the current list of eligible providers in the NEC area. In addition, CRs may provide enrollment kits (including application form, electricity facts label, product description, and customer rights information) for customers to take and review. It is the CR’s responsibility to maintain its supply of information on display. NEC will not notify a CR if the information is depleted on the display.

NEC will fax applications to all eligible CRs for no charge as a service to its members. The members will be instructed to contact the chosen CR to confirm receipt and obtain any additional enrollment information/instructions upon their return home.

If NEC employees are asked to recommend a power provider, they will only refer customers to the website and display for more information and will never recommend a particular provider. Members will only be referred to a particular provider upon the member’s request for more information about NEC’s competitive offerings.

Differences

Overview of the differences between the Electric Co-op/MOU retail electric choice model and the IOU retail electric choice model in Texas

WE ARE DIFFERENT. Below are documents that provide brief overviews and highlights of the differences between the EC/MOU choice model and the IOU model. For more details, see Senate Bill 7, Chapter 25 of the PUCT Substantive Rules, PURPA, and the NEC Access Tariff.

Below are a few significant differences that affect your business operations and processes in the NEC delivery area.

Customer Protections & Customer Education: As a cooperative, NEC is accountable for all customer protections and customer education, unlike in the IOU areas of Texas where the PUCT is responsible for these. As a result, we must review your NEC area residential EFLs and terms of service, and obtain/review the URL where this information will be provided and updated. We also must provide your contact information on our website and on a “NEC area provider list” we give to all of our delivery area members, each month in our monthly magazine.
Billing Difference: You are also asked to confirm that you understand it is your responsibility to inform consumers who enroll with you and who are delivery service members of NEC, that “in the NEC area, you (the consumer) have the choice of receiving one bill (sent by NEC for Source and NEC services) or two bills (Source send its bill and NEC send ours). For business reasons, (you) only offer the two bill option. As a result, (consumer) should expect to receive TWO bills each month for services and both bills will need to be paid.” Retail provider is required to include this messaging in your call center/enrollment scripts for the NEC area to ensure consumers know about the billing changes for their service.
The “member id” is required on all NEC move-in transactions. This is unique to the NEC area EDI transactions. This number is provided to each new consumer and they are told that the number is required when they choose their provider. For existing member switches, the number is their NEC account number less the last two digits.

Please always forward updates of the EFLs, Terms of Service, URLs for EFL/TOS access, the trading partner form, and changes in your understanding to provide the enrollment information for billing (above).

About Billing

NEC members have the option to choose to receive their bills in one of two ways:

Two bills- one from the CR for their charges and one from NEC with their charges, OR
A consolidated bill for both the CR’s charges and NEC charges that comes from NEC (NOT the CR as in the rest of the Texas choice market)

CRs should be sure to let the consumers know of this choice in their new enrollment process and obtain their preference for billing.

Costs to CR for Consolidated Billing

$3.89 per ESID per month
$35 per ACH remittance (CR chooses frequency)
$10 per billing pdf file sent (CR chooses frequency)

Frequently Asked Questions

The window is 3 days following receipt of the 867.03. If you miss the window, you’ll receive an 824 notification that you missed the bill window. There is a slight chance that your charges could be included if you receive this notice, but usually the bills will go out with only NEC delivery charges. We will do a corrected bill and you will be charged for that manual process. We’ll provide the charge along with the other billing charges on Friday, as well.