PUCT Monthly Reporting Under HB 144: What Utilities Must Submit Each Month
Of all the requirements in HB 144, Section 38.103(e) — monthly reporting to the PUCT — is the one that changes daily operations most. It's not enough to inspect poles. You must report the results of every inspection, every month, in a structured format that the PUCT can review and that Guidehouse can audit.
What Sec. 38.103(e) Actually Says
The statute requires utilities to provide the PUCT with monthly updates on their pole inspection program. Each update must include the results of inspections conducted during the reporting period, specifically: whether each inspected pole was determined to be safe, reliable, and capable of withstanding extreme weather conditions.
After 24 consecutive months of compliant monthly reporting, a utility may apply to transition to annual updates. This means the monthly reporting requirement lasts at minimum from January 2027 through December 2028 — two full years.
What Each Monthly Report Must Include
Per-Pole Pass/Fail Status
Every pole inspected during the month must have a documented result. Not a summary — per-pole.
Safe / Reliable / Extreme Weather Determination
Each pole must be classified on three dimensions. This is the PUCT's framework for assessing infrastructure readiness.
Remediation Actions Taken
If a pole failed inspection, what was done? Replacement, repair, re-inspection? Timeline and evidence.
Complaint Response Summary
All complaints received during the period with resolution status and SLA compliance.
How Often and For How Long
Monthly. Every month. For at least 24 months. For a cooperative managing 15,000 poles, that's a report with up to 15,000 rows — per-pole status, determinations, and remediation notes — generated 24 times before you can even apply for annual reporting.
This is where the spreadsheet approach breaks down. Manually assembling a 15,000-row report every month is not sustainable. The math doesn't work.
Format: What We Know (and Don't Know Yet)
As of April 2026, the PUCT has not prescribed a specific reporting template. However, the data requirements are clear from the statute. The report must be structured enough for Guidehouse to review and consistent enough to compare across months and utilities.
AcreSeal's PUCT report generator produces both PDF and CSV formats, mapped section-by-section to Sec. 38.103. When the PUCT publishes a final template, AcreSeal's configurable export system will match it automatically — included at no additional cost.
Automating Monthly Reports
The key insight is that the monthly report should be a byproduct of your inspection workflow, not a separate assembly task. If your field inspectors record per-pole results digitally as they work, the monthly report generates itself. If they use paper or disconnected systems, someone has to compile that data manually — every month, for two years.
Our ROI calculator lets you compare the cost of manual monthly report assembly against automated generation. For most cooperatives, the reporting requirement alone justifies the platform investment.
Lance Hayes
Founder, Ectropy Solutions · San Antonio, TX