Bill Text: TX HB4290 | 2025-2026 | 89th Legislature | Engrossed

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Bill Title: Relating to a qualifying cogenerator that serves a large load and a colocated desalination facility.

Sponsorship: Bipartisan Bill

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2025-05-06 - Referred to Business & Commerce [HB4290 Detail]

Download: Texas-2025-HB4290-Engrossed.html

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By: Darby, Landgraf, Anchía, Craddick H.B. No. 4290

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to a qualifying cogenerator that serves a large load and a
colocated desalination facility.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 31.002(13), Utilities Code, is amended
to read as follows:
(13) "Qualifying cogenerator" and "qualifying small
power producer" have the meanings assigned those terms by 16 U.S.C.
Sections 796(18)(C) and 796(17)(D). A qualifying cogenerator that
provides electricity to a purchaser of the cogenerator's thermal
output is not for that reason considered to be a retail electric
provider or a power generation company. The term includes an owner
or operator of dispatchable generation that:
(A) provides thermal, steam, or waste heat for
use by a colocated desalination facility;
(B) serves a load used for the primary purpose of
manufacturing digital products; and
(C) is not located in an area in which a
municipally owned utility or electric cooperative is certificated
to provide retail electric utility service.
SECTION 2. Section 37.001(3), Utilities Code, is amended to
read as follows:
(3) "Retail electric utility" means a person,
political subdivision, electric cooperative, or agency that
operates, maintains, or controls in this state a facility to
provide retail electric utility service. The term does not include
a corporation described by Section 32.053 to the extent that the
corporation sells electricity exclusively at wholesale and not to
the ultimate consumer. A qualifying cogenerator that sells
electric energy at retail to the sole purchaser of the
cogenerator's thermal output under Sections 35.061 and 36.007 is
not for that reason considered to be a retail electric utility. The
owner or operator of a qualifying cogenerator that provides
thermal, steam, or waste heat for use by a colocated desalination
facility and serves a load used for the primary purpose of
manufacturing digital products is not for that reason considered to
be a retail electric utility. The owner or operator of a qualifying
cogeneration facility who was issued the necessary environmental
permits from the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission
after January 1, 1998, and who commenced construction of such
qualifying facility before July 1, 1998, may provide electricity to
the purchasers of the thermal output of that qualifying facility
and shall not for that reason be considered an electric utility or a
retail electric utility, provided that the purchasers of the
thermal output are owners of manufacturing or process operation
facilities that are located on a site entirely owned before
September, 1987, by one owner who retained ownership after
September, 1987, of some portion of the facilities and that those
facilities now share some integrated operations, such as the
provision of services and raw materials. A person who is an
electric generation equipment lessor or operator is not for that
reason considered to be a retail electric utility. A person who owns
or operates equipment used solely to provide electricity charging
service for consumption by an alternatively fueled vehicle, as
defined by Section 502.004, Transportation Code, is not for that
reason considered to be a retail electric utility.
SECTION 3. 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, 2025.