Bill Text: TX SB1920 | 2017-2018 | 85th Legislature | Introduced

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Bill Title: Relating to electric industry market power rules.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Republican 1)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2017-04-25 - Left pending in committee [SB1920 Detail]

Download: Texas-2017-SB1920-Introduced.html

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85R6157 DMS-D
By: Kolkhorst S.B. No. 1920

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
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[:
[(A)] communicate with a current or potential
customer about products or services offered by a competitive
affiliate in a manner that favors a competitive affiliate[;] or
[(B)] allow a competitive affiliate[, before
September 1, 2005,] to use the utility's corporate name, trademark,
brand, [or] logo, or other identifying brand feature, except that
an affiliate relationship may be disclosed in communications that
are not made for the purpose of advertising or joint marketing
[unless the competitive affiliate includes on employee business
cards and in its advertisements of specific services to existing or
potential residential or small commercial customers locating
within the utility's certificated service area a disclaimer that
states, "(Name of competitive affiliate) is not the same company as
(name of utility) and is not regulated by the Public Utility
Commission of Texas, and you do not have to buy (name of competitive
affiliate)'s products to continue to receive quality regulated
services from (name of utility)."];
(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.