Bill Text: TX SB182 | 2021-2022 | 87th Legislature | Introduced

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Bill Title: Relating to customer choice for certain municipally owned utilities.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2021-03-03 - Referred to Business & Commerce [SB182 Detail]

Download: Texas-2021-SB182-Introduced.html

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87R1443 BRG-D
By: Schwertner S.B. No. 182

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to customer choice for certain municipally owned
utilities.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 40.051(a), Utilities Code, is amended to
read as follows:
(a) Except as provided by Subchapter D, the [The] municipal
governing body or a body vested with the power to manage and operate
a municipally owned utility has the discretion to decide when or if
the municipally owned utility will provide customer choice.
SECTION 2. Chapter 40, Utilities Code, is amended by adding
Subchapter D to read as follows:
SUBCHAPTER D. REQUIRED TRANSITION TO CUSTOMER CHOICE
Sec. 40.151. DEFINITION. In this subchapter, "governing
body" means the body vested with the power to manage and operate a
municipally owned utility.
Sec. 40.152. ELECTRIC RATE COMPARISON. (a) Except as
provided by Subsection (d), not later than September 1 of each year,
the commission shall make an electric rate comparison of
approximately one-fifth of municipally owned utilities located in
the ERCOT power region and not open to customer choice by comparing
the average electric rate paid in the previous five years by:
(1) customers of the municipally owned utility; and
(2) customers who are located in a region that is open
to customer choice and similarly situated to the region served by
the utility, as determined by the commission.
(b) If the commission determines under Subsection (a) that
the five-year average electric rate paid by customers of a
municipally owned utility is 10 percent greater than the five-year
average electric rate paid by customers in a similarly situated
region open to customer choice, the commission shall notify the
governing body of the municipally owned utility that the utility is
required to transition to customer choice.
(c) The commission may not make an electric rate comparison
of a municipally owned utility if the utility was the subject of a
rate comparison under Subsection (a) in the previous four years.
(d) The commission is not required to make a rate comparison
under Subsection (a) if each municipally owned utility to which
Subsection (a) applies has been the subject of a rate comparison in
the previous four years.
Sec. 40.153. REQUIREMENT TO INITIATE CUSTOMER CHOICE. Not
later than one year after the date a governing body receives notice
under Section 40.152(b), the utility shall:
(1) initiate customer choice; and
(2) except as otherwise provided by this subchapter,
be considered to be a municipally owned utility that chooses to
participate in customer choice under Section 40.051(b) for purposes
of this subtitle.
Sec. 40.154. ENFORCEMENT OF CUSTOMER CHOICE. (a) As soon
as practicable, but not earlier than 90 days after the date that a
municipally owned utility is required to initiate customer choice
under Section 40.153, the commission may determine that the utility
is not adequately offering customer choice.
(b) If the commission makes a determination under
Subsection (a), the commission assumes oversight authority over the
municipally owned utility beginning on the date of the
determination for matters relating to the implementation of
customer choice. Notwithstanding any other provision of this
chapter, the commission's authority under this subsection
encompasses any portion of the authority vested with the governing
body of the utility under Subchapter B that the commission
determines is necessary.
(c) The governing body shall work cooperatively with the
commission in offering customer choice.
(d) The commission's oversight authority under this section
continues until the date the commission determines that the
municipally owned utility:
(1) has completed the transition to customer choice;
and
(2) is prepared to continue to provide customer choice
in a manner consistent with the competitive market.
(e) On the date the commission makes an affirmative
determination under Subsection (d), the management and operation of
the municipally owned utility returns to the control of the
utility's governing body.
Sec. 40.155. RULES. The commission may adopt rules as
necessary to implement this subchapter, including rules requiring
reporting of electric rates by a retail electric provider or
municipally owned utility.
SECTION 3. The Public Utility Commission of Texas shall
make the initial electric rate comparison under Section 40.152,
Utilities Code, as added by this Act, not earlier than January 1,
2026. The commission shall designate approximately one-fifth of
municipally owned utilities to which that section applies as
subject to the initial electric rate comparison and one-fifth as
subject to the second, third, fourth, and fifth rate comparisons,
respectively.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2021.