Bill Text: TX HB4647 | 2023-2024 | 88th Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Relating to programs to provide assistance for certain electric customers.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2023-03-22 - Referred to State Affairs [HB4647 Detail]
Download: Texas-2023-HB4647-Introduced.html
88R13514 CXP-F | ||
By: Turner | H.B. No. 4647 |
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relating to programs to provide assistance for certain electric | ||
customers. | ||
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: | ||
SECTION 1. Section 39.002, Utilities Code, as amended by | ||
Chapters 908 (H.B. 4492) and 950 (S.B. 1580), Acts of the 87th | ||
Legislature, Regular Session, 2021, is reenacted and amended to | ||
read as follows: | ||
Sec. 39.002. APPLICABILITY. This chapter, other than | ||
Sections 39.151, 39.1516, 39.155, 39.157(e), 39.159, 39.160, | ||
39.203, 39.9035, 39.9036, 39.904, 39.9051, 39.9052, and 39.914(e), | ||
and Subchapters M and N, does not apply to a municipally owned | ||
utility or an electric cooperative. Sections 39.157(e), 39.203, | ||
and 39.904, however, apply only to a municipally owned utility or an | ||
electric cooperative that is offering customer choice. If there is | ||
a conflict between the specific provisions of this chapter and any | ||
other provisions of this title, except for Chapters 40 and 41, the | ||
provisions of this chapter control. | ||
SECTION 2. Subchapter Z, Chapter 39, Utilities Code, is | ||
amended by adding Sections 39.9035 and 39.9036 to read as follows: | ||
Sec. 39.9035. EMERGENCY ON-SITE GENERATOR FUND. (a) In | ||
this section, "fund" means the emergency on-site generator fund. | ||
(b) The fund is an account in the general revenue fund. | ||
Money in the account may be appropriated only for the program | ||
described by Subsection (e) or as provided by other law. | ||
(c) The fund consists of: | ||
(1) money appropriated, credited, or transferred to | ||
the fund by the legislature; | ||
(2) gifts or grants contributed to the fund; and | ||
(3) interest earned on deposits and investments of the | ||
fund. | ||
(d) The commission shall administer the fund. | ||
(e) The commission shall establish a program to provide | ||
funding to assist entities for whom electric service is considered | ||
crucial for the protection or maintenance of public safety with | ||
procuring emergency on-site generators or comparable emergency | ||
on-site power sources for use during a power outage. | ||
(f) Assistance under the fund may only be used to procure an | ||
emergency on-site generator or comparable emergency on-site power | ||
source that: | ||
(1) has a capacity of less than 10 megawatts; and | ||
(2) is not operated in parallel with the transmission | ||
or distribution system. | ||
(g) An entity that receives assistance under the fund to | ||
procure an emergency on-site generator or comparable emergency | ||
on-site power source: | ||
(1) must use the equipment exclusively for power | ||
consumption by the entity at the entity's facilities; and | ||
(2) may not: | ||
(A) sell any surplus power generated by the | ||
equipment; or | ||
(B) participate in a load reduction program for | ||
compensation. | ||
(h) The sale of an emergency on-site generator or comparable | ||
emergency on-site power source to an entity eligible for assistance | ||
under the fund is a competitive energy service. | ||
(i) The commission shall adopt rules necessary to | ||
administer this section, including rules establishing eligibility | ||
criteria for assistance under the fund. | ||
Sec. 39.9036. LOW-INCOME CRITICAL CARE RESIDENTIAL | ||
CUSTOMER ASSISTANCE FUND. (a) In this section: | ||
(1) "Critical care residential customer" has the | ||
meaning assigned by Section 17.002. | ||
(2) "Eligible device" means electrically powered | ||
medical equipment that mechanically or artificially sustains life | ||
or restores or replaces a vital physical function, including a home | ||
dialysis machine or a home oxygen concentrator. | ||
(3) "Fund" means the low-income critical care | ||
residential customer assistance fund. | ||
(4) "Low-income customer" means an electric customer | ||
designated as a low-income customer under Section 17.007 and | ||
commission rules. | ||
(5) "Portable backup battery" means a back-up battery | ||
system that is capable of being operated without being connected to | ||
an electric service panel. | ||
(b) The fund is an account in the general revenue fund. | ||
Money in the account may be appropriated only for the program | ||
described by Subsection (e) or as provided by other law. | ||
(c) The fund consists of: | ||
(1) money appropriated, credited, or transferred to | ||
the fund by the legislature; | ||
(2) gifts or grants contributed to the fund; and | ||
(3) interest earned on deposits and investments of the | ||
fund. | ||
(d) The commission shall administer the fund. | ||
(e) The commission shall establish a program to provide | ||
funding to low-income critical care residential customers to secure | ||
portable backup batteries to operate eligible devices in the | ||
customers' homes during a power outage. | ||
(f) Assistance under the fund may only be used to procure a | ||
portable backup battery that when fully charged and operated | ||
correctly is capable of running an eligible device for up to 48 | ||
hours. | ||
(g) The sale or provision of a portable backup battery to a | ||
person who receives assistance under the fund is a competitive | ||
energy service. | ||
(h) The commission may enable funding to be made available | ||
to competitive energy service providers through an energy | ||
efficiency program under Section 39.905. | ||
(i) The commission shall adopt rules necessary to | ||
administer this section. | ||
SECTION 3. It is the intent of the 88th Legislature, Regular | ||
Session, 2023, that the amendments made by this Act be harmonized | ||
with another Act of the 88th Legislature, Regular Session, 2023, | ||
relating to nonsubstantive additions to and corrections in enacted | ||
codes. | ||
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2023. |