In a rulemaking issued April 6, 2023, the Public Utility Commission of Texas (“Commission”) adopted amendments to market participant registration and certification requirements.[1] The Commission’s rule amendments significantly change qualification and reporting requirements for Retail Electric Providers (“REP”), Power Generation Companies (“PGC”), Self-Generators, and Power Marketers. This article outlines the most significant of these
Regulated energy sector entities routinely submit confidential and proprietary business information to Texas state agencies, including the Railroad Commission (Texas’s incongruously named oil and gas regulator), the General Land Office, the Public Utility Commission, and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (“ERCOT”), often assuming it is “for regulators’ eyes only.” But Texas agencies have limited power to prevent the disclosure of information sought pursuant to the Public Information Act (“PIA”).
Lawmakers of the 86th Texas Legislature passed several bills in regular session related to storage and cybersecurity, as well as a bill extending the expiration of a Chapter 312 tax abatement program that benefits renewable energy. These energy-related bills passed by the Texas Legislature are discussed below, as are notable bills that failed to gain traction this session.
By the time the March 8, 2019 bill filing deadline for the 86th Texas Legislature passed, many bills concerning the electric industry had been filed. Storage, cybersecurity of the electric grid, and capital project tax abatements are among the energy issues Texas lawmakers are considering. This reviews the major filed bills before the current Texas Legislature.
At the January 17, 2019 Open Meeting, the Public Utility Commission of Texas (Commission) addressed several highly contested issues, including storage, Operating Reserve Demand Curve, Real-Time Co-optimization, and Marginal Losses. First, in Project No. 48023, Rulemaking to Address the Use of Non-Traditional Technologies in Electric Delivery Service (the Battery Project), dealing with utility ownership of battery storage, the Commission decided to defer further action until Texas Legislature’s regular session concludes. This decision comes after 63 comments were filed with the Commission, expressing widely varying views on whether a transmission and distribution utility within ERCOT may legally own and operate battery storage facilities. The Commission previously submitted through its Scope of Competition Report a request for the Legislature to enact legislation clarifying this legal point.
The Public Utility Commission of Texas has finalized the recommendations it will include in its upcoming 2019 Report on the Scope of Competition in Electric Markets in Texas to the 86th Texas Legislature, which goes into session January 8, 2019. The Commission voted on the recommendations at its December 20, 2018 meeting; the most significant
It appears the Texas Legislature has taken note of the several news articles and industry insiders sounding the alarm bells for ratepayers to brace for record high electricity prices this summer in a market applauded for its consistently low prices. The Committee convened because the Lt. Governor charged it to study/respond to the reserve margin
On the heels of last week’s Hearing on the Merits, the proposed transition of Lubbock Power & Light (“LP&L”) from the Southwest Power Pool (“SPP”) to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (“ERCOT”) was back on the agenda at this week’s Public Utility Commission of Texas (“PUCT” or the “Commission”) open meeting.
During last week’s hearing Chairman DeAnn Walker instructed representatives of LP&L and ERCOT to finalize an agreement in which LP&L pays to help counterbalance some of the transmission infrastructure costs that may be incurred by ERCOT customers as a result of the transition. Walker also advised LP&L and SPP to try to reach a similar agreement for the benefit of the ratepayers in that region.
In response to that directive, LP&L, the Commission Staff, the Office of Public Utility Counsel (“OPUC”), and the Texas Industrial Energy Consumers (“TIEC”) have reached an agreement in principle that would, if approved by the Commission, resolve the outstanding ERCOT issues. A letter summarizing the terms of the agreement in principle filed in PUCT Docket No. 47576 last week states that LP&L will pay $22 million each year for five years to ERCOT wholesale transmission customers through the tariff proposed by Commission Staff to shield ERCOT ratepayers against the expected financial impacts of LP&L’s requested transition, and that LP&L will pay SPP’s study costs of approximately $172,000.
Discussions with ERCOT continued this week regarding what terms the final transition agreement will need to contain to satisfy ERCOT’s concerns. LP&L has completed a draft settlement agreement with ERCOT’s guidance in mind and circulated it to all parties the day before the open meeting. LP&L’s attorney conducted preliminary conversations with the parties regarding the draft and the settlement discussion is ongoing; LP&L expects to gain more guidance from the parties over the course of the next several days.