CUSTOMER CHOICE PILOT PROJECTS

(a) Customer choice pilot projects may be used to allow the commission to evaluate the ability of each power region and electric utility to implement customer choice. However, in a multiply certificated area, an electric utility may not include customers that were served by an electric cooperative or a municipally owned utility on May 1, 1999. (b) The commission shall require each electric utility to offer customer choice in its service area within this state amounting to five percent of the utility's combined load of all customer classes within this state beginning on June 1, 2001. (c) The load designated for customer choice under this section shall be distributed among all customer classes of a utility consistent with the purpose of this section and subject to commission approval. (d) Customers participating in a pilot project under this section may buy electric energy from any retail electric provider certified by the commission under Section 39.352, including an affiliated retail electric provider; provided, however, that a retail electric provider may not participate in a pilot project in the certificated service area served by the electric utility with which it is affiliated. (e) Each utility operating a pilot project under this section shall charge residential and small commercial customers in accordance with Section 39.052. (f) The commission may prescribe reporting requirements it considers necessary to evaluate a pilot project consistent with the purpose of this section. (g) Customers having customer choice under this section shall be billed as provided by Section 39.107. (h) The commission may prescribe terms and conditions it considers necessary to prohibit anticompetitive practices and to encourage customer choice offered under this section. (i) Notwithstanding any other provision of this title, a retail electric provider participating in a pilot project under this section is not an electric utility or a retail electric utility. (j) Twenty percent of the load designated for customer choice under this section shall be initially set aside for aggregated loads.