Mar. 11--Nearly 1 in 5 consumer complaints against Texas electricity providers over billing problems and other rule violations were upheld by the state, a sharp increase over the previous year, according to an Austin consultant.

On average, 19 percent of the complaints against retail electric providers, or REPs, last year turned up rules violations, said Patricia Dolese, a former Public Utility Commission staffer who has headed Regulatory Compliance Services since 2002.

Regulatory Compliance, which works with retail electric providers, used PUC data to rank the companies.

Among several dozen REPs, three had at least half of their complaints confirmed as violations. The largest of those was Vega Resources, which does business as Amigo Energy, with 673 complaints, of which 62 percent were confirmed.

For four electric companies, less than 10 percent of complaints involved violations, including Reliant Energy, one of the state's largest REPs. Green Mountain Energy recorded the lowest rate, just 2.3 percent, which Dolese called "phenomenally low."

Paul Markovich, senior vice president at Green Mountain, said: "We take it extremely seriously. The other side is that we keep our promises to our customers."

At TXU Energy, the state's largest REP, 11.3 percent of complaints were confirmed. TXU spokesman Tom Stewart said the company watches its numbers and ranking compared with its peers'.

"It's nice to have a better percentage than our competitors but still leaves a lot of mistakes we've made with customers," he said. TXU had 2,174 complaints but also has nearly 2 million residential customers.

Dolese said it is worrisome that REPs are racking up rules violations at an increasing rate. In 2005, just 6 percent of complaints were found to involve rules violations. That rose to 10 percent in 2006 and 12 percent in 2007 before jumping to 19 percent last year.

"Clearly, they are having more trouble clearing the hurdles," Dolese said.

Electricity complaints Retail electric providers ranked by the percentage of complaints that were found to involve rules violations. The average for all REPs is 19.3 percent.

Best

1. Green Mountain Energy 2.3 2. Reliant Energy 4.4 3. Cirro Energy 7.2 4. Ambit Energy 9.5 5. Spark Energy 11.3 5. TXU Energy 11.3 Worst

1. ElectricNow 65.2 2. AmigoEnergy 62.4 3. Hwy. 3 MPH--50.5 4 LibertyPower 45.2 5 SureElectric 44.2 --no longer in business

Source: Regulatory Compliance Services, Austin

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