Bill Text: TX HB3615 | 2021-2022 | 87th Legislature | Enrolled


Bill Title: Relating to certain rates charged by and programs offered by municipally owned utilities.

Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Republican 2-1)

Status: (Passed) 2021-06-04 - Effective on 9/1/21 [HB3615 Detail]

Download: Texas-2021-HB3615-Enrolled.html
 
 
  H.B. No. 3615
 
 
 
 
AN ACT
  relating to certain rates charged by and programs offered by
  municipally owned utilities.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  Section 552.133, Government Code, is amended by
  amending Subsection (a-1) and adding Subsection (b-1) to read as
  follows:
         (a-1)  For purposes of this section, "competitive matter"
  means a utility-related matter that is related to the public power
  utility's competitive activity, including commercial information,
  and would, if disclosed, give advantage to competitors or
  prospective competitors. The term:
               (1)  means a matter that is reasonably related to the
  following categories of information:
                     (A)  generation unit specific and portfolio fixed
  and variable costs, including forecasts of those costs, capital
  improvement plans for generation units, and generation unit
  operating characteristics and outage scheduling;
                     (B)  bidding and pricing information for
  purchased power, generation and fuel, and Electric Reliability
  Council of Texas bids, prices, offers, and related services and
  strategies;
                     (C)  effective fuel and purchased power
  agreements and fuel transportation arrangements and contracts;
                     (D)  risk management information, contracts, and
  strategies, including fuel hedging and storage;
                     (E)  plans, studies, proposals, and analyses for
  system improvements, additions, or sales, other than transmission
  and distribution system improvements inside the service area for
  which the public power utility is the sole certificated retail
  provider; and
                     (F)  customer billing, contract, and usage
  information, electric power pricing information, system load
  characteristics, and electric power marketing analyses and
  strategies; and
               (2)  does not include the following categories of
  information:
                     (A)  information relating to the provision of
  distribution access service, including the terms and conditions of
  the service and the rates charged for the service but not including
  information concerning utility-related services or products that
  are competitive;
                     (B)  information relating to the provision of
  transmission service that is required to be filed with the Public
  Utility Commission of Texas, subject to any confidentiality
  provided for under the rules of the commission;
                     (C)  information for the distribution system
  pertaining to reliability and continuity of service, to the extent
  not security-sensitive, that relates to emergency management,
  identification of critical loads such as hospitals and police,
  records of interruption, and distribution feeder standards;
                     (D)  any substantive rule or tariff of general
  applicability regarding rates, service offerings, service
  regulation, customer protections, or customer service adopted by
  the public power utility as authorized by law;
                     (E)  aggregate information reflecting receipts or
  expenditures of funds of the public power utility, of the type that
  would be included in audited financial statements;
                     (F)  information relating to equal employment
  opportunities for minority groups, as filed with local, state, or
  federal agencies;
                     (G)  information relating to the public power
  utility's performance in contracting with minority business
  entities;
                     (H)  information relating to nuclear
  decommissioning trust agreements, of the type required to be
  included in audited financial statements;
                     (I)  information relating to the amount and timing
  of any transfer to an owning city's general fund;
                     (J)  information relating to environmental
  compliance as required to be filed with any local, state, or
  national environmental authority, subject to any confidentiality
  provided under the rules of those authorities;
                     (K)  names of public officers of the public power
  utility and the voting records of those officers for all matters
  other than those within the scope of a competitive resolution
  provided for by this section;
                     (L)  a description of the public power utility's
  central and field organization, including the established places at
  which the public may obtain information, submit information and
  requests, or obtain decisions and the identification of employees
  from whom the public may obtain information, submit information or
  requests, or obtain decisions;
                     (M)  information identifying the general course
  and method by which the public power utility's functions are
  channeled and determined, including the nature and requirements of
  all formal and informal policies and procedures;
                     (N)  salaries and total compensation of all
  employees of a public power utility; [or]
                     (O)  information publicly released by the
  Electric Reliability Council of Texas in accordance with a law,
  rule, or protocol generally applicable to similarly situated market
  participants; or
                     (P)  information related to a chilled water
  program, as defined by Section 11.003, Utilities Code.
         (b-1)  Notwithstanding any contrary provision of Subsection
  (b), information or records of a municipally owned utility or
  municipality that operates a chilled water program are subject to
  disclosure under this chapter if the information or records are
  reasonably related to:
               (1)  a municipally owned utility's rate review process;
               (2)  the method a municipality or municipally owned
  utility uses to set rates for retail electric service; or
               (3)  the method a municipality or municipally owned
  utility uses to set rates for a chilled water program described by
  Subsection (a-1)(2)(P).
         SECTION 2.  Section 11.003, Utilities Code, is amended by
  adding Subdivision (3-a) and amending Subdivision (11) to read as
  follows:
               (3-a)  "Chilled water program" means:
                     (A)  a program to produce chilled water at a
  central plant and pipe that water to buildings for air
  conditioning, including a district cooling system or chilled water
  service; or
                     (B)  any other program designed to used chilled
  water to provide air conditioning, reduce peak electric demand, or
  shift electric load.
               (11)  "Municipally owned utility" means a utility
  owned, operated, and controlled by a municipality or by a nonprofit
  corporation the directors of which are appointed by one or more
  municipalities and includes any chilled water program operated by
  the utility.
         SECTION 3.  Section 552.133, Government Code, as amended by
  this Act, applies only to a request for public information made on
  or after the effective date of this Act.  A request for public
  information made before the effective date of this Act is governed
  by the law in effect on the date of the request, and the former law
  is continued in effect for that purpose.
         SECTION 4.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2021.
 
 
  ______________________________ ______________________________
     President of the Senate Speaker of the House     
 
 
         I certify that H.B. No. 3615 was passed by the House on May 6,
  2021, by the following vote:  Yeas 105, Nays 27, 2 present, not
  voting.
 
  ______________________________
  Chief Clerk of the House   
 
 
         I certify that H.B. No. 3615 was passed by the Senate on May
  18, 2021, by the following vote:  Yeas 29, Nays 2.
 
  ______________________________
  Secretary of the Senate    
  APPROVED:  _____________________
                     Date          
   
            _____________________
                   Governor       
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