Bill Text: TX HB962 | 2015-2016 | 84th Legislature | Introduced

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Bill Title: Relating to the regulation of the amount of installed electric generation capacity.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Republican 2)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2015-04-29 - Left pending in committee [HB962 Detail]

Download: Texas-2015-HB962-Introduced.html

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84R4406 DDT-F
By: Krause H.B. No. 962

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the regulation of the amount of installed electric
generation capacity.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 39.001, Utilities Code, is amended by
amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsection (d-1) to read as
follows:
(a) The legislature finds that the production and sale of
electricity is not a monopoly warranting regulation of rates,
operations, and services and that the public interest in
competitive electric markets requires that, except for
transmission and distribution services and for the recovery of
stranded costs, generation capacity and electric services and their
prices should be determined by customer choices and the normal
forces of competition. As a result, this chapter is enacted to
protect the public interest during the transition to and in the
establishment of a fully competitive electric power industry.
(d-1) The legislature finds that the amount of installed
generation capacity is best determined by investor, generator, and
customer choices through the normal forces of competition. As a
result, regulatory authorities may not mandate or otherwise
regulate the amount of installed generation capacity or require a
surplus or reserve of installed generation capacity above actual or
forecasted levels of load.
SECTION 2. Section 39.152(a), Utilities Code, is amended to
read as follows:
(a) The commission shall certify a power region if:
(1) a sufficient number of interconnected utilities in
the power region fall under the operational control of an
independent organization as described by Section 39.151; and
(2) the power region has a generally applicable tariff
that guarantees open and nondiscriminatory access for all users to
transmission and distribution facilities in the power region as
provided by Section 39.203[; and
[(3) no person owns and controls more than 20 percent
of the installed generation capacity located in or capable of
delivering electricity to a power region, as determined according
to Section 39.154].
SECTION 3. Section 39.262(d), Utilities Code, is amended to
read as follows:
(d) The affiliated power generation company shall
reconcile, and either credit or bill to the transmission and
distribution utility, the net sum of:
(1) the former electric utility's final fuel balance
determined under Section 39.202(c); and
(2) any difference between the price of power obtained
through the capacity auctions under Section [Sections] 39.153 and
former Section 39.156 and the power cost projections that were
employed for the same time period in the ECOM model to estimate
stranded costs in the proceeding under Section 39.201.
SECTION 4. Sections 39.152(d), 39.153(d), 39.154, 39.156,
39.157(c), and 39.158(a), Utilities Code, are repealed.
SECTION 5. This Act takes effect September 1, 2015.