Texas 2009 - 81st Regular

Texas House Bill HB3345 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

Old	New	Differences
1	1	By: Farabee H.B. No. 3345
2	2
3	3
4	4	A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
5	5	AN ACT
6	6	Relating to this state's goal for energy efficiency
7	7	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
8	8	SECTION 1. Section 39.905, Utilities Code, is amended by
9	9	amending Subsections (a), (b), and (d), and adding Subsection (h)
10	10	to read as follows:
11	11	(a) It is the goal of the legislature that:
12	12	(1) electric utilities will administer energy
13	13	efficiency incentive programs in a market-neutral,
14	14	nondiscriminatory manner but will not offer underlying competitive
15	15	services;
16	16	(2) electric utilities will assist in building an
17	17	infrastructure of trained and qualified energy services providers,
18	18	allowing and encouraging the participation of retail electric
19	19	providers in service delivery, that will ensure that all customers,
20	20	in all customer classes, will have a choice of and access to energy
21	21	efficiency alternatives and other choices from the market,
22	22	including demand-side renewable energy systems, that allow each
23	23	customer to reduce energy consumption, peak demand or energy costs;
24	24	(3) each electric utility will annually provide,
25	25	through a cost-effective portfolio of market-based standard offer
26	26	programs or limited, targeted, market-transformation programs,
27	27	incentives sufficient for retail electric providers and
28	28	competitive energy service providers to acquire additional
29	29	[cost-effective] energy efficiency for [residential and
30	30	commercial] customers, other customers at transmission-level
31	31	industrial facilities, equivalent to at least:
32	32	(A) one-half of one [10] percent of the electric
33	33	utility's peak [annual growth in] demand, not including demand from
34	34	transmission-level industrial facilities, [of residential and
35	35	commercial customers] by January 1, 2012 [December 31, 2007]; and
36	36	(B) one [15] percent of the electric utility's
37	37	peak [annual growth in] demand, not including demand from
38	38	transmission-level industrial facilities, [of residential and
39	39	commercial customers] by January 1, 2015 [December 31, 2008;
40	40	provided that the electric utility's program expenditures for 2008
41	41	funding may not be greater than 75 percent above the utility's
42	42	program budget for 2007 for residential and commercial customers,
43	43	as included in the April 1, 2006, filing; and
44	44	[(C) 20 percent of the electric utility's annual
45	45	growth in demand of residential and commercial customers by
46	46	December 31, 2009, provided that the electric utility's program
47	47	expenditures for 2009 funding may not be greater than 150 percent
48	48	above the utility's program budget for 2007 for residential and
49	49	commercial customers, as included in the April 1, 2006, filing];
50	50	(4) as a component of its portfolio of programs, each
51	51	utility will provide incentives sufficient to facilitate the
52	52	acquisition of demand-side renewable energy systems that shall
53	53	produce the utility's load-proportionate share of 200 megawatts of
54	54	electricity or avoided electric consumption, by January 1, 2015, as
55	55	required by Subsection (b)(7);
56	56	(5) [(4)] each electric utility in the ERCOT region
57	57	shall create specific programs at a scale sufficient to [use its
58	58	best efforts to encourage and] facilitate the involvement of the
59	59	region's retail electric providers in the mass marketing and
60	60	widespread delivery of efficiency programs and programs for
61	61	demand-side renewable energy systems [demand response programs]
62	62	under this section;
63	63	(6) [(5)] retail electric providers in the ERCOT
64	64	region, and electric utilities outside of the ERCOT region, shall
65	65	provide customers with energy efficiency educational materials;
66	66	and.
67	67	(7) [(6)] notwithstanding Subsection (a)(3), electric
68	68	utilities shall continue to make available, at 2007 funding and
69	69	participation levels, any load management standard offer programs
70	70	developed for industrial customers and implemented prior to May 1,
71	71	2007.
72	72	(b) The commission shall provide oversight and adopt rules
73	73	and procedures to ensure that the utilities can achieve the goal of
74	74	this section, including:
75	75	(1) establishing an energy efficiency cost recovery
76	76	factor for ensuring timely and reasonable cost recovery for utility
77	77	expenditures made to satisfy the goal of this section;
78	78	(2) establishing an incentive under Section 36.204,
79	79	sufficient to mitigate the effect of lost revenue associated with
80	80	the success of efficiency programs required by this section, to
81	81	reward utilities administering programs under this section that
82	82	exceed the minimum goals established by this section;
83	83	(3) providing a utility that is unable to establish an
84	84	energy efficiency cost recovery factor in a timely manner due to a
85	85	rate freeze with a mechanism to enable the utility to:
86	86	(A) defer the costs of complying with this
87	87	section; and
88	88	(B) recover the deferred costs through an energy
89	89	efficiency cost recovery factor on the expiration of the rate
90	90	freeze period;
91	91	(4) ensuring the costs associated with programs
92	92	provided under this section are borne by the customer classes that
93	93	receive the services under the programs; [and]
94	94	(5) ensuring the program rules encourage the value of
95	95	the incentives to be passed on to the end-use customer;
96	96	(6) ensuring that programs operate at a scale
97	97	sufficient to:
98	98	(A) reduce the rate of free ridership;
99	99	(B) ensure that all eligible customers have
100	100	access to the programs; and
101	101	(C) allow retail electric providers and
102	102	competitive energy service providers to mass market and deliver the
103	103	programs to all eligible customers;
104	104	(7) establishing a statewide market transformation
105	105	program to facilitate the use of demand-side renewable energy
106	106	systems in supplying or reducing demand equivalent to not less
107	107	than:
108	108	(A) 50 megawatts of electricity by January 1,
109	109	2012; and
110	110	(B) 200 megawatts of electricity by January 1,
111	111	2015; and
112	112	(8) ensuring that programs under this section lead to
113	113	a significant and continuing reduction in demand or energy
114	114	consumption, or costs, by using a ten-year standard measure life as
115	115	the basis for calculating the contribution of either particular
116	116	measures or programs toward achievement of the goals of this
117	117	section.
118	118	(d) The commission shall establish a procedure for
119	119	reviewing and evaluating market-transformation program options
120	120	described by this section [subsection] and other options. A market
121	121	transformation program that is launched as a pilot program shall be
122	122	continued for more than three years only if the commission
123	123	determines that the pilot program is an appropriate means of
124	124	addressing special market barriers that prevent or inhibit the
125	125	measure or behavior addressed by the pilot program from being
126	126	delivered or adopted through normal market channels, under the
127	127	electric utility's standard offer programs [In evaluating program
128	128	options, the commission may consider the ability of a program
129	129	option to reduce costs to customers through reduced demand, energy
130	130	savings, and relief of congestion. Utilities may choose to
131	131	implement any program option approved by the commission after its
132	132	evaluation in order to satisfy the goal in Subsection (a),
133	133	including:
134	134	(1) energy-smart schools;
135	135	(2) appliance retirement and recycling;
136	136	(3) air conditioning system tune-ups;
137	137	(4) the use of trees or other landscaping for energy
138	138	efficiency;
139	139	(5) customer energy management and demand response
140	140	programs;
141	141	(6) high performance residential and commercial
142	142	buildings that will achieve the levels of energy efficiency
143	143	sufficient to qualify those buildings for federal tax incentives;
144	144	(7) programs for customers who rent or lease their
145	145	residence or commercial space;
146	146	(8) programs providing energy monitoring equipment to
147	147	customers that enable a customer to better understand the amount,
148	148	price, and time of the customer's energy use;
149	149	(9) energy audit programs for owners and other
150	150	residents of single family or multifamily residences and for small
151	151	commercial customers;
152	152	(10) net-zero energy new home programs;
153	153	(11) programs for solar thermal, [or] solar electric
154	154	programs,
155	155	(12) programs for using windows and other glazing
156	156	systems, glass doors, and skylights in residential and commercial
157	157	buildings that reduce solar gain by at least 30 percent from the
158	158	level established for the federal Energy Star windows program].
159	159	(h) In this section, "demand-side renewable energy system"
160	160	means a system that:
161	161	(1) uses distributed renewable generation, as defined
162	162	by Section 39.916; or
163	163	(2) reduces the need for energy consumption by using a
164	164	renewable energy technology or natural mechanism of the
165	165	environment, including a geothermal heat pump or solar water
166	166	heater.
167	167	SECTION 2. Section 39.905(b-2), Utilities Code, is
168	168	repealed.
169	169	SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2009.