Bill Text: TX SB1920 | 2017-2018 | 85th Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Relating to electric industry market power rules.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2017-04-25 - Left pending in committee [SB1920 Detail]
Download: Texas-2017-SB1920-Introduced.html
85R6157 DMS-D | ||
By: Kolkhorst | S.B. No. 1920 |
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relating to electric industry market power rules. | ||
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: | ||
SECTION 1. Section 39.157(d), Utilities Code, is amended to | ||
read as follows: | ||
(d) Not later than January 10, 2000, the commission shall | ||
adopt rules and enforcement procedures to govern transactions or | ||
activities between a transmission and distribution utility and its | ||
competitive affiliates to avoid potential market power abuses and | ||
cross-subsidizations between regulated and competitive activities | ||
both during the transition to and after the introduction of | ||
competition. Nothing in this subsection is intended to affect or | ||
modify the obligations or duties relating to any rules or standards | ||
of conduct that may apply to a utility or the utility's affiliates | ||
under orders or regulations of the Federal Energy Regulatory | ||
Commission or the Securities and Exchange Commission. A utility | ||
that is subject to statutes or regulations in other states that | ||
conflict with a provision of this section may petition the | ||
commission for a waiver of the conflicting provision on a showing of | ||
good cause. The rules adopted under this section shall ensure that: | ||
(1) a utility makes any products and services, other | ||
than corporate support services, that it provides to a competitive | ||
affiliate available, contemporaneously and in the same manner, to | ||
the competitive affiliate's competitors and applies its tariffs, | ||
prices, terms, conditions, and discounts for those products and | ||
services in the same manner to all similarly situated entities; | ||
(2) a utility does not: | ||
(A) give a competitive affiliate or a competitive | ||
affiliate's customers any preferential advantage, access, or | ||
treatment regarding services other than corporate support | ||
services; or | ||
(B) act in a manner that is discriminatory or | ||
anticompetitive with respect to a nonaffiliated competitor of a | ||
competitive affiliate; | ||
(3) a utility providing electric transmission or | ||
distribution services: | ||
(A) provides those services on nondiscriminatory | ||
terms and conditions; | ||
(B) does not establish as a condition for the | ||
provision of those services the purchase of other goods or services | ||
from the utility or the competitive affiliate; and | ||
(C) does not provide competitive affiliates | ||
preferential access to the utility's transmission and distribution | ||
systems or to information about those systems; | ||
(4) a utility does not release any proprietary | ||
customer information to a competitive affiliate or any other | ||
entity, other than an independent organization as defined by | ||
Section 39.151 or a provider of corporate support services for the | ||
purposes of providing the services, without obtaining prior | ||
verifiable authorization, as determined from the commission, from | ||
the customer; | ||
(5) a utility, or any affiliated utility, does not[ |
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customer about products or services offered by a competitive | ||
affiliate in a manner that favors a competitive affiliate[ |
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an affiliate relationship may be disclosed in communications that | ||
are not made for the purpose of advertising or joint marketing | ||
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(6) a utility, or any affiliated utility, does not | ||
conduct joint advertising or promotional activities with a | ||
competitive affiliate in a manner that favors the competitive | ||
affiliate; | ||
(7) a utility is a separate, independent entity from | ||
any competitive affiliates and, except as provided by Subdivisions | ||
(8) and (9), does not share employees, facilities, information, or | ||
other resources, other than permissible corporate support | ||
services, with those competitive affiliates unless the utility can | ||
prove to the commission that the sharing will not compromise the | ||
public interest; | ||
(8) a utility's office space is physically separated | ||
from the office space of the utility's competitive affiliates by | ||
being located in separate buildings or, if within the same | ||
building, by a method such as having the offices on separate floors | ||
or with separate access, unless otherwise approved by the | ||
commission; | ||
(9) a utility and a competitive affiliate: | ||
(A) may, to the extent the utility implements | ||
adequate safeguards precluding employees of a competitive | ||
affiliate from gaining access to information in a manner | ||
inconsistent with Subsection (g) or (i), share common officers and | ||
directors, property, equipment, offices to the extent consistent | ||
with Subdivision (8), credit, investment, or financing | ||
arrangements to the extent consistent with Subdivision (17), | ||
computer systems, information systems, and corporate support | ||
services; and | ||
(B) are not required to enter into prior written | ||
contracts or competitive solicitations for non-tariffed | ||
transactions between the utility and the competitive affiliate, | ||
except that the commission by rule may require the utility and the | ||
competitive affiliate to enter into prior written contracts or | ||
competitive solicitations for certain classes of transactions, | ||
other than corporate support services, that have a per unit value of | ||
more than $75,000 or that total more than $1 million; | ||
(10) a utility does not temporarily assign, for less | ||
than one year, employees engaged in transmission or distribution | ||
system operations to a competitive affiliate unless the employee | ||
does not have knowledge of information that is intended to be | ||
protected under this section; | ||
(11) a utility does not subsidize the business | ||
activities of an affiliate with revenues from a regulated service; | ||
(12) a utility and its affiliates fully allocate costs | ||
for any shared services, corporate support services, and other | ||
items described by Subdivisions (8) and (9); | ||
(13) a utility and its affiliates keep separate books | ||
of accounts and records and the commission may review records | ||
relating to a transaction between a utility and an affiliate; | ||
(14) assets transferred or services provided between a | ||
utility and an affiliate, other than transfers that facilitate | ||
unbundling under Section 39.051 or asset valuation under Section | ||
39.262, are priced at a level that is fair and reasonable to the | ||
customers of the utility and reflects the market value of the assets | ||
or services or the utility's fully allocated cost to provide those | ||
assets or services; | ||
(15) regulated services that a utility provides on a | ||
routine or recurring basis are included in a tariff that is subject | ||
to commission approval; | ||
(16) each transaction between a utility and a | ||
competitive affiliate is conducted at arm's length; and | ||
(17) a utility does not allow an affiliate to obtain | ||
credit under an arrangement that would include a specific pledge of | ||
assets in the rate base of the utility or a pledge of cash | ||
reasonably necessary for utility operations. | ||
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 2017. |