Bill Text: TX HB3737 | 2023-2024 | 88th Legislature | Introduced


Bill Title: Relating to facilities included in the electricity supply chain.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2023-04-05 - Left pending in committee [HB3737 Detail]

Download: Texas-2023-HB3737-Introduced.html
  88R11574 ANG-F
 
  By: Metcalf H.B. No. 3737
 
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT
  relating to facilities included in the electricity supply chain.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  Section 37.157, Utilities Code, is amended to
  read as follows:
         Sec. 37.157.  MAPS. (a) An electric utility shall file with
  the commission one or more maps that show each utility facility and
  that separately illustrate each utility facility for the
  generation, transmission, or distribution of the utility's
  services on a date the commission orders.
         (b)  Each electric utility and municipally owned utility
  shall provide the utility's service area boundary map in a
  geographic information system format to the commission. The service
  area boundary map may be provided to the commission in a geodatabase
  feature class or shapefile.
         SECTION 2.  Section 38.201, Utilities Code, is amended by
  amending Subsections (a), (b), and (c) and adding Subsection (a-1)
  to read as follows:
         (a)  In this subchapter, "electricity supply chain" means:
               (1)  facilities and methods used for producing,
  treating, processing, pressurizing, storing, or transporting
  natural gas for delivery to electric generation facilities; [and]
               (2)  critical infrastructure necessary to maintain
  electricity service; and
               (3)  roads necessary to access facilities in the
  electricity supply chain.
         (a-1)  A reference in this subchapter to the "electricity
  supply chain" includes water and wastewater treatment plants.
         (b)  The Texas Electricity Supply Chain Security and Mapping
  Committee is established to:
               (1)  map this state's electricity supply chain;
               (2)  identify critical infrastructure sources in the
  electricity supply chain;
               (3)  establish best practices to prepare facilities
  [that provide electric service and natural gas service] in the
  electricity supply chain to maintain service in an extreme weather
  event and recommend oversight and compliance standards for those
  facilities; and
               (4)  designate priority service needs to prepare for,
  respond to, and recover from an extreme weather event.
         (c)  The committee is composed of:
               (1)  the executive director of the commission;
               (2)  the executive director of the Railroad Commission
  of Texas;
               (3)  the president and the chief executive officer of
  the independent organization certified under Section 39.151 for the
  ERCOT power region; [and]
               (4)  the chief of the Texas Division of Emergency
  Management; and
               (5)  the executive director of the Texas Department of
  Transportation.
         SECTION 3.  Section 38.202(c), Utilities Code, is amended to
  read as follows:
         (c)  The commission, the Railroad Commission of Texas, [and]
  the Texas Division of Emergency Management, and the Texas
  Department of Transportation shall provide staff as necessary to
  assist the committee in carrying out the committee's duties and
  responsibilities.
         SECTION 4.  Section 38.203, Utilities Code, is amended by
  amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsections (f), (g), (h), and
  (i) to read as follows:
         (a)  The committee shall:
               (1)  map the state's electricity supply chain in order
  to designate priority electricity service needs during extreme
  weather events;
               (2)  identify and designate the sources in the
  electricity supply chain necessary to operate critical
  infrastructure, as defined by Section 421.001, Government Code;
               (3)  develop a communication system between critical
  infrastructure sources, the commission, and the independent
  organization certified under Section 39.151 for the ERCOT power
  region to ensure that electricity and natural gas supplies in the
  electricity supply chain are prioritized to those sources during an
  extreme weather event; and
               (4)  establish best practices to prepare facilities
  [that provide electric service and natural gas service] in the
  electricity supply chain to maintain service in an extreme weather
  event and recommend oversight and compliance standards for those
  facilities.
         (f)  On request, the committee shall provide view-only
  access to the electricity supply chain map to:
               (1)  an electric utility, a transmission and
  distribution utility, an electric cooperative, or a municipally
  owned utility;
               (2)  an operator of a gas supply chain facility, as
  defined by Section 86.044, Natural Resources Code; or
               (3)  an operator of a gas pipeline facility described
  by Section 121.2015.
         (g)  Access to the electricity supply chain map by an entity
  described by Subsection (f)(1) is limited to the critical natural
  gas facilities on the map that are located in the requesting
  entity's service area.
         (h)  The committee may not provide an entity described by
  Subsection (f)(1) with access to the electricity supply chain map
  unless the entity has complied with Section 37.157.  
         (i)  Access to the electricity supply chain map by an
  operator described by Subsections (f)(2) and (3) is limited to the
  critical natural gas facilities owned by the requesting operator.
         SECTION 5.  The Public Utility Commission of Texas shall
  require each entity to which Section 37.157(b), Utilities Code, as
  added by this Act, applies to comply with that section not later
  than September 30, 2023.
         SECTION 6.  This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
  a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
  provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution.  If this
  Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
  Act takes effect September 1, 2023.
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