Public Utility Commission of Texas
Texas state agency
The Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC or PUCT) is a state agency that regulates the state’s electric, water and telecommunication utilities, implements respective legislation, and offers customer assistance in resolving consumer complaints.
History
In 1975, the Texas Legislature enacted the Public Utility Regulatory Act (PURA) and created the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) to provide statewide regulation of the rates and services of electric and telecommunications utilities. Roughly twenty years later, the combined effects of significant Texas legislation in 1995 and the Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 resulted in competition in telecommunication’s wholesale and retail services and the creation of a competitive electric wholesale market. Further changes in the 1999 Texas Legislature not only called for a restructuring of the electric utility industry but also created new legislation that ensured the protection of customers' rights in the new competitive environment.
The agency is headquartered in the William B. Travis State Office Building at 1701 North Congress in Austin. In 2011, the former commission chairman, Barry Smitherman resigned to become a member of the Texas Railroad Commission, under appointment from Governor Rick Perry.
Following the February 13–17, 2021, North American winter storm, the PUC was sued by plaintiffs alleging that its actions led to a spike in electricity prices. In April 2021, in the wake of this crisis, chairman DeAnn T. Walker resigned and Governor Greg Abbott appointed Texas Water Development Board chairman Peter Lake as chairman of the Public Utility Commission of Texas. On June 14, 2024, the Supreme Court of Texas ruled that the PUC had acted within its authority as a state agency in taking emergency measures that raised the price of electricity, and was therefore immune from suit.
Structure and function
Appointed by the Governor of Texas, the five-member commission also regulates the rates and services of transmission and distribution utilities that operate where there is competition, investor-owned electric utilities where competition has not been chosen, and incumbent local exchange companies that have not elected incentive regulation.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Public Utility Commission of Texas” is texas state agency. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Public, Utility and Commission, not as a finished interpretation.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7257657. VIAF identifies the subject as 139263376. The Library of Congress control number is n79117998. 1 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1975, 1995, 1996 and 1999.
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This entry incorporates text from “Public Utility Commission of Texas” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.