88R8944 JXC-F
 
  By: Guillen H.B. No. 2973
 
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT
  relating to facilities and construction machinery used to respond
  to power outages.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  Section 39.918, Utilities Code, is amended to
  read as follows:
         Sec. 39.918.  UTILITY FACILITIES FOR RESPONDING TO
  SIGNIFICANT [POWER RESTORATION AFTER WIDESPREAD] POWER
  OUTAGE.  (a) In this section, "significant ["widespread] power
  outage" means an event that [results in]:
               (1)  results in a loss of electric power that:
                     (A)  affects a significant number of distribution
  customers of a transmission and distribution utility, creates a
  risk to public health or safety,[;] and
                     [(B)]  has lasted or is expected to last for at
  least six [eight] hours;
                     (B)  affects distribution customers of a
  transmission and distribution utility in an area for which the
  governor has issued a disaster or emergency declaration;
                     (C)  affects customers served by a radial
  transmission or distribution facility, creates a risk to public
  health or safety, and has lasted or is expected to last for at least
  twelve hours; or
                     (D)  creates [and
               [(2)] a risk to public health or safety because it
  affects a critical infrastructure facility, hospital, health care
  facility, law enforcement facility, fire station, or water or
  wastewater facility; or
               (2)  causes the independent system operator to order a
  transmission and distribution utility to shed load.
         (a-1)  The Texas Division of Emergency Management, the
  independent organization certified under Section 39.151 for the
  ERCOT power region, or the executive director of the commission may
  determine that a power outage other than an outage described by
  Subsection (a) is a significant power outage for the purposes of
  this section.
         (b)  Notwithstanding any other provision of this subtitle, a
  transmission and distribution utility may:
               (1)  lease or own and operate facilities that provide
  temporary emergency electric energy to aid in providing power to
  the utility's distribution customers when a significant power
  outage is imminent or restoring power to the utility's distribution
  customers during a significant [widespread] power outage [in which:
                     [(A)  the independent system operator has ordered
  the utility to shed load; or
                     [(B)  the utility's distribution facilities are
  not being fully served by the bulk power system under normal
  operations]; and
               (2)  procure, own, and operate, or enter into a
  cooperative agreement with other transmission and distribution
  utilities to procure, own, and operate jointly, transmission and
  distribution facilities that have a lead time of at least six months
  and would aid in restoring power to the utility's distribution
  customers following a significant [widespread] power outage.  
         (b-1)  In this section, long lead time facilities described
  by Subsection (b) may not be electric energy storage equipment or
  facilities described by [under] Chapter 35[, Utilities Code].
         (c)  A transmission and distribution utility that [leases
  and] operates a facility [facilities] under Subsection (b)(1) may
  not sell electric energy or ancillary services from the facility
  [those facilities].
         (d)  A facility [Facilities] described by Subsection (b)(1):
               (1)  must be operated in isolation from the bulk power
  system; and
               (2)  may not be included in independent system
  operator:
                     (A)  locational marginal pricing calculations;
                     (B)  pricing; or
                     (C)  reliability models.
         (e)  A transmission and distribution utility that [leases
  and] operates a facility [facilities] under Subsection (b)(1) shall
  ensure, to the extent reasonably practicable, that retail customer
  usage during operation of the facility [those facilities] is
  adjusted out of the usage reported for billing purposes by the
  retail customer's retail electric provider.
         (f)  A transmission and distribution utility shall, when
  reasonably practicable, use a competitive bidding process to lease
  a facility [facilities] under Subsection (b)(1).
         (g)  A transmission and distribution utility that leases or
  owns and operates facilities under Subsection (b)(1) or that
  procures, owns, and operates facilities under Subsection (b)(2)
  shall include in the utility's emergency operations plan filed with
  the commission, as described by Section 186.007, a detailed plan on
  the utility's use of those facilities.
         (h)  The commission shall allow [permit]:
               (1)  a transmission and distribution utility that
  leases or owns and operates facilities under Subsection (b)(1) to
  recover the reasonable and necessary costs of leasing or owning and
  operating the facilities, including the present value of future
  payments required under a [the] lease, using the rate of return on
  investment established in the commission's final order in the
  utility's most recent base rate proceeding; and
               (2)  a transmission and distribution utility that
  procures, owns, and operates facilities under Subsection (b)(2) to
  recover the reasonable and necessary costs of procuring, owning,
  and operating the facilities, using the rate of return on
  investment established in the commission's final order in the
  utility's most recent base rate proceeding.
         (i)  The commission shall authorize a transmission and
  distribution utility to defer for recovery in a future ratemaking
  proceeding the incremental operations and maintenance expenses and
  the return, not otherwise recovered in a rate proceeding,
  associated with the leasing, [or] procurement, ownership, and
  operation of the facilities.
         (j)  A transmission and distribution utility may request
  recovery of the reasonable and necessary costs of leasing, [or]
  procuring, owning, or [and] operating facilities under this
  section, including any deferred expenses, through an expedited
  periodic rate adjustment [a] proceeding under Section 36.210 or in
  another ratemaking proceeding. The commission may review costs
  recovered through a periodic rate adjustment in the following base
  rate proceeding and order refunds to customers if appropriate.
         (k)  A transmission and distribution utility requesting cost
  recovery under Subsection (j) is entitled to select whether the
  costs are considered to be distribution substation equipment costs
  or distribution transformer costs unless the commission has found
  in a previous base rate proceeding for the utility that temporary
  emergency electric energy costs should be categorized in a
  different manner. A lease under Subsection (b)(1) must be treated
  as a capital lease or finance lease for ratemaking purposes.
         (l)  The fact that the commission has not previously approved
  a facility operated under this section or a cost of leasing,
  procuring, owning, or operating a facility under this section is
  not grounds for dismissal of the facility or the cost from a
  proceeding under Section 36.210 or another ratemaking proceeding.
         (m)  If the capacity of facilities a transmission and
  distribution utility operates under Subsection (b)(1) is less than
  or equal to three percent of the utility's historical peak load, the
  commission shall find that:
               (1)  the facilities are used and useful to the utility
  in providing service; and 
               (2)  the costs of leasing or owning and operating the
  facilities are prudent, reasonable, and necessary.
         [(k)  This section expires September 1, 2029.]
         SECTION 2.  Section 502.146(b), Transportation Code, is
  amended to read as follows:
         (b)  An owner is not required to register a vehicle that is
  used only temporarily on the highways if the vehicle is:
               (1)  a farm trailer or farm semitrailer with a gross
  weight of more than 4,000 pounds but not more than 34,000 pounds
  that is  used exclusively:
                     (A)  to transport seasonally harvested
  agricultural products or livestock from the place of production to
  the place of processing, market, or storage;
                     (B)  to transport farm supplies from the place of
  loading to the farm; or
                     (C)  for the purpose of participating in equine
  activities or attending livestock shows, as defined by Section
  87.001, Civil Practice and Remedies Code;
               (2)  machinery used exclusively for the purpose of
  drilling water wells;
               (3)  oil well servicing or drilling machinery and if at
  the time of obtaining the license plates, the applicant submits
  proof that the applicant has a permit under Section 623.142; or
               (4)  construction machinery, including construction
  machinery that is: 
                     (A)  owned by a transmission and distribution
  utility as defined by Section 31.002, Utilities Code; and
                     (B)  used to maintain or repair electrical lines
  or substations in response to a power outage.
         SECTION 3.  The changes in law made by this Act apply only to
  a proceeding before the Public Utility Commission of Texas, or
  other regulatory authority described by Section 11.003, Utilities
  Code, that commences on or after the effective date of this Act. A
  proceeding before the Public Utility Commission of Texas or other
  regulatory authority described by Section 11.003, Utilities Code,
  that commenced before the effective date of this Act is governed by
  the law in effect on the date the proceeding commenced, and that law
  is continued in effect for that purpose.
         SECTION 4.  To the extent of any conflict, this Act prevails
  over another Act of the 88th Legislature, Regular Session, 2023,
  relating to nonsubstantive additions to and corrections in enacted
  codes.
         SECTION 5.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2023.