Certificates of Convenience & Necessity
A CCN gives a retail public utility the exclusive right to provide retail water and sewer utility service to an identified geographic area. The Texas Water Code and PUC’s rules refer to this as the "certificated service area."
Who needs a CCN?
Investor-owned utilities (IOUs), Water Supply Corporations (WSCs), and affected counties are required to have a CCN.
While some municipalities and districts choose to obtain a CCN, they are not required to have one unless the district or municipality seeks to provide retail water or sewer service within an existing CCN.
An exempt utility is a water utility that provides retail water to less than 15 potential connections for compensation and that is not located in another utility’s CCN service area. Exempt utilities may register with the PUC as an “Exempt Utility”.
Criteria
The Texas Water Code, Chapter 13, and the Public Utility Commission’s rules in 16 Texas Administrative Code, Chapter 24, specify the following nine criteria that the PUC must consider when granting or amending a CCN:
- The adequacy of service currently provided to the requested area;
- The need for additional service in the requested area;
- The effect of the granting of a certificate or an amendment;
- The ability of the applicant to provide adequate service;
- The feasibility of obtaining service from an adjacent retail public utility;
- The financial ability of the applicant to pay for the facilities necessary to provide continuous and adequate service;
- Environmental integrity;
- The probable improvement of service or lowering of cost to consumers; and
- The effect on the land to be included in the certificated area.
Opting Out
Landowners with at least 25 acres that are wholly or partially located within the proposed CCN area may elect to exclude (opt out) some or all of their property from the requested area. By providing written notice to the Commission before the 30th day after the date the landowner receives notice of an application for a CCN or for a CCN amendment.
Expedited Releases
A landowner may file a petition for streamlined expedited release of the subject property from an existing CCN if:
- The subject property is owned by the same property owner(s), whether through one deed or multiple deeds;
- The deed or deeds total at least 25 contiguous acres (not all property needs to be within the CCN as long as the total acreage is at least 25 acres); and
- The subject property is not receiving water or sewer service; and
- The subject property is located in the following counties: Atascosa, Bandera, Bastrop, Bexar, Blanco, Brazoria, Burnet, Caldwell, Chambers, Collin, Comal, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Fort Bend, Galveston, Guadalupe, Harris, Hays, Johnson, Kaufman, Kendall, Liberty, Montgomery, Parker, Rockwall, Smith, Tarrant, Travis, Waller, Williamson, Wilson, or Wise County.
GIS / PUC Map
The PUC's CCN Viewer enables users to view, print and download retail water and sewer utility CCN service area boundaries. Additionally, the viewer allows users to determine if there are existing retail utility providers that hold a CCN for a particular site or area.
To help identify the water and/or sewer CCN holders in a particular area, please e-mail the PUC’s mapping staff at water@puc.texas.gov. In the subject line of your e-mail write: "Attention Mapping Staff."
CCN Map Viewer
Sale, Transfer, or Merger (STM)
House Bill 3542 of the 86th Texas Legislature created an optional and voluntary valuation appraisal process to determine the asset value – fair market value – of a water and sewer retail public utility's facilities when being acquired by an IOU with 2,300 or more connections.
STM Applications
IOUs, WSCs, and political subdivisions holding a CCN must first submit an application for Sale, Transfer, or Merger (STM) of a retail public utility.
Download Form
Economic Valuation Experts
The PUC maintains a list of qualified appraisers to serve as Economic Valuation Experts (EVE) to conduct economic evaluations of a retail public utility before an STM application is filed by an IOU. Qualified appraisers who are interested in joining the pool can file a resume and a letter of interest in the PUC’s Interchange under Project 49818.
Interchange Filing Search
STM Application Qualifications
Financial capabilities
The PUC requires that a person or entity purchasing or acquiring the water or sewer system, or retail public utility demonstrate adequate financial, managerial, and technical capability for providing continuous and adequate service to the requested area and any areas currently certificated to the person or entity.
Filed Rate Doctrine
We should add language here about the new legislation that passed regarding filed rate doctrine and indicate that we are currently in the rulemaking phase of the implementation of the statue.
Financial assurance
If the person or entity purchasing or acquiring the water or sewer system cannot demonstrate adequate financial capability, the PUC may require that the person or entity provide a bond or other financial assurance in a form and in the amount specified by the PUC (typically a bond) to ensure continuous and adequate utility service is provided.
Sale of a Municipally Owned Utility
We should add language here to discuss the new legislation thar specifies when an election is not required before the sale of a municipally owned system to another entity.
