By Tom Kleckner

Texas regulators on Wednesday rejected NextEra Energy’s last-gasp attempt to acquire Oncor, rebuffing a request to rehear a previous decision denying the proposed $18.7 billion deal.

The Public Utility Commission of Texas reiterated the finding of its initial April order, saying Florida-based NextEra “failed to meet its burden of proof” to show its acquisition of Texas utility Oncor was “in the public interest.”

Commissioners Ken Anderson and Brandy Marty Marquez spent about a minute during their open meeting agreeing with each other’s memos offering edits to a draft order.

NextEra’s “fatal flaw” was its refusal to accept “appropriate ring-fencing conditions, and any benefits offered could not overcome that failure,” Marquez said.

Throughout the docket’s (46238) proceedings, the commissioners stressed the importance of ring-fencing measures to protect Oncor’s credit rating and local ownership — which had similarly protected the utility during the bankruptcy of parent company Energy Future Holdings.

Anderson was unmoved by NextEra’s arguments in its bid for a rehearing. NextEra had argued that the PUC went beyond the scope of its powers in rejecting the acquisition. (See NextEra’s Rejected Oncor Bid Gets Second Look.)

“It is inappropriate for NextEra Energy to attempt to amend its application to request different relief in a motion for rehearing,” Anderson wrote in his memo. “NextEra Energy has failed to meet its burden of proof to show [the transaction] is in the public interest, and so that request is denied.”

NextEra proposed last summer to purchase Oncor in three transactions:

• The approximately 80% interest indirectly held by EFH;
• The 19.75% interest indirectly held by Texas Transmission Holdings Corp.; and
• The 0.22% interest held by Oncor Management Investment.

The PUC last year rejected Dallas-based Hunt Consolidated’s attempt to acquire Oncor, which owns and operates power lines serving 3.4 million customers. The utility’s future is central to EFH’s bid to exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which has dragged on for more than three years.

Both NextEra and Oncor declined to comment. At stake is a $275 million termination fee.

NextEra’s stock gained 65 cents to close the day’s trading at $142.58/share.