Bill Text: TX HB776 | 2011-2012 | 82nd Legislature | Introduced

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Bill Title: Relating to the rights of distributed renewable generation owners and certain parties who provide distributed renewable generation to retail electric customers.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2011-03-14 - Left pending in committee [HB776 Detail]

Download: Texas-2011-HB776-Introduced.html

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82R1569 JXC-D
By: Anchia H.B. No. 776

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the rights of distributed renewable generation owners
and certain parties who provide distributed renewable generation to
retail electric customers.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 31.002(6), Utilities Code, is amended to
read as follows:
(6) "Electric utility" means a person or river
authority that owns or operates for compensation in this state
equipment or facilities to produce, generate, transmit,
distribute, sell, or furnish electricity in this state. The term
includes a lessee, trustee, or receiver of an electric utility and a
recreational vehicle park owner who does not comply with Subchapter
C, Chapter 184, with regard to the metered sale of electricity at
the recreational vehicle park. The term does not include:
(A) a municipal corporation;
(B) a qualifying facility;
(C) a power generation company;
(D) an exempt wholesale generator;
(E) a power marketer;
(F) a corporation described by Section 32.053 to
the extent the corporation sells electricity exclusively at
wholesale and not to the ultimate consumer;
(G) an electric cooperative;
(H) a retail electric provider;
(I) this state or an agency of this state; [or]
(J) a person not otherwise an electric utility
who:
(i) furnishes an electric service or
commodity only to itself, its employees, or its tenants as an
incident of employment or tenancy, if that service or commodity is
not resold to or used by others;
(ii) owns or operates in this state
equipment or facilities to produce, generate, transmit,
distribute, sell, or furnish electric energy to an electric
utility, if the equipment or facilities are used primarily to
produce and generate electric energy for consumption by that
person; or
(iii) owns or operates in this state a
recreational vehicle park that provides metered electric service in
accordance with Subchapter C, Chapter 184; or
(K) a distributed renewable generation owner, as
defined by Section 39.916, or a person with whom a retail electric
customer contracts to install or maintain distributed renewable
generation on the customer's side of the meter.
SECTION 2. The heading to Section 39.916, Utilities Code,
is amended to read as follows:
Sec. 39.916. [INTERCONNECTION OF] DISTRIBUTED RENEWABLE
GENERATION.
SECTION 3. Section 39.916(a)(2), Utilities Code, is amended
to read as follows:
(2) "Distributed renewable generation owner" means
the owner of distributed renewable generation. The term includes a
retail electric customer who contracts with another person to
install or maintain distributed renewable generation on the
customer's side of the meter, notwithstanding the fact that the
customer does not take actual ownership of the installed
distributed renewable generation.
SECTION 4. Section 39.916, Utilities Code, is amended by
amending Subsections (d) and (j) and adding Subsection (i) to read
as follows:
(d) The commission by rule shall establish safety,
technical, and performance standards for distributed renewable
generation that may be interconnected. In adopting the rules, the
commission shall consider standards published by the Underwriters
Laboratories, the National Electric Code, the National Electric
Safety Code, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers. The commission may not require a distributed renewable
generation owner or a person who contracts with a customer to
install or maintain distributed renewable generation on the
customer's side of the meter to register as a self-generator.
(i) The commission by rule shall establish a minimum rate at
which an electric utility or retail electric provider shall
purchase surplus electricity produced by distributed renewable
generation. The minimum rate must be equal to or greater than the
clearing price for energy at the time of day that the electricity is
made available to the grid.
(j) Subject to Subsection (i), for [For] distributed
renewable generation owners in areas in which customer choice has
been introduced, the distributed renewable generation owner must
sell the owner's surplus electricity produced to the retail
electric provider that serves the distributed renewable generation
owner's load at a value agreed to between the distributed renewable
generation owner and the provider that serves the owner's load
which may include, but is not limited to, an agreed value based on
the clearing price of energy at the time of day that the electricity
is made available to the grid or it may be a credit applied to an
account during a billing period that may be carried over to
subsequent billing periods until the credit has been redeemed. The
independent organization identified in Section 39.151 shall
develop procedures so that the amount of electricity purchased from
a distributed renewable generation owner under this section is
accounted for in settling the total load served by the provider that
serves that owner's load by January 1, 2009. A distributed
renewable generation owner requesting net metering services for
purposes of this section must have metering devices capable of
providing measurements consistent with the independent
organization's settlement requirements.
SECTION 5. This Act takes effect September 1, 2011.