82R11510 ALL-F
By: Carona S.B. No. 1125
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to energy efficiency goals and programs and the
participation of loads in certain energy markets.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 39.905, Utilities Code, is amended by
amending Subsections (a) and (b) and adding Subsection (h) to read
as follows:
(a) It is the goal of the legislature that:
(1) electric utilities will administer energy
efficiency incentive programs in a market-neutral,
nondiscriminatory manner but will not offer underlying competitive
services;
(2) all customers, in all customer classes, will have
a choice of and access to energy efficiency alternatives and other
choices from the market that allow each customer to reduce energy
consumption, peak demand, or energy costs;
(3) each electric utility annually will provide,
through a cost-effective portfolio of market-based standard offer
programs or through limited, targeted, market-transformation
programs, incentives sufficient for retail electric providers and
competitive energy service providers to acquire additional
[cost-effective] energy efficiency for the utility's [residential
and commercial] customers, other than customers who operate a
transmission-level voltage facility, equivalent to at least
one-half of one[:
[(A) 10] percent of the electric utility's peak
[annual growth in] demand, not including demand from
transmission-level industrial facilities, [of residential and
commercial customers] by January 1, 2013 [December 31, 2007;
[(B) 15 percent of the electric utility's annual
growth in demand of residential and commercial customers by
December 31, 2008, provided that the electric utility's program
expenditures for 2008 funding may not be greater than 75 percent
above the utility's program budget for 2007 for residential and
commercial customers, as included in the April 1, 2006, filing; and
[(C) 20 percent of the electric utility's annual
growth in demand of residential and commercial customers by
December 31, 2009, provided that the electric utility's program
expenditures for 2009 funding may not be greater than 150 percent
above the utility's program budget for 2007 for residential and
commercial customers, as included in the April 1, 2006, filing];
(4) each electric utility in the ERCOT region shall
use its best efforts to encourage and facilitate the involvement of
the region's retail electric providers in the delivery of
efficiency programs and demand response programs under this
section;
(5) retail electric providers in the ERCOT region, and
electric utilities outside of the ERCOT region, shall provide
customers with energy efficiency educational materials; [and]
(6) notwithstanding Subsection (a)(3), electric
utilities shall continue to make available, at 2007 funding and
participation levels, any load management standard offer programs
developed for industrial customers and implemented prior to May 1,
2007; and
(7) electric utilities may communicate with and
provide rebate or incentive funds to their customers to promote or
facilitate the success of programs implemented under this section.
(b) The commission shall provide oversight and adopt rules
and procedures to ensure that the utilities can achieve the goal of
this section, including:
(1) establishing an energy efficiency cost recovery
factor for ensuring timely and reasonable cost recovery for utility
expenditures made to satisfy the goal of this section;
(2) establishing an incentive under Section 36.204 to
reward utilities administering programs under this section that
exceed the minimum goals established by this section;
(3) providing a utility that is unable to establish an
energy efficiency cost recovery factor in a timely manner due to a
rate freeze with a mechanism to enable the utility to:
(A) defer the costs of complying with this
section; and
(B) recover the deferred costs through an energy
efficiency cost recovery factor on the expiration of the rate
freeze period;
(4) ensuring that the costs associated with programs
provided under this section are borne by the customer classes that
receive the services under the programs; [and]
(5) ensuring the program rules encourage the value of
the incentives to be passed on to the end-use customer;
(6) ensuring that programs are evaluated, measured,
and verified using a framework established by the commission that
promotes effective program design and consistent and streamlined
reporting; and
(7) ensuring that an independent organization
certified under Section 39.151 allows load participation in all
energy markets for residential, commercial, and industrial
customer classes, either directly or through aggregators of retail
customers, to increase market efficiency, competition, and
customer benefits.
(h) The commission shall develop a standard disclosure form
and require an energy efficiency provider to use the form to help
consumers make better informed decisions regarding energy
efficiency investments. The form must include disclosures
regarding:
(1) the full scope of incentives that are available to
the consumer for the energy efficiency measure the consumer is
considering, including all utility, city, county, state, and
national incentives;
(2) the value of any incentives used to reduce the
costs of products or services offered passed on to the energy
service provider marketing its energy efficiency program;
(3) other related energy efficiency incentives that
are available to the consumer; and
(4) the consumer's estimated energy savings and
payback period.
SECTION 2. Section 39.905(b-2), Utilities Code, is
repealed.
SECTION 3. (a) The Public Utility Commission of Texas shall
conduct a study to determine:
(1) the effect of including avoided transmission and
distribution capacity costs as a factor included in an analysis
used to determine whether programs are cost-effective;
(2) the appropriate cost of energy to be included as a
factor included in an analysis used to determine whether programs
are cost-effective;
(3) how the reductions in energy demand and energy
consumption provided by energy efficiency programs affect the
market clearing price in ERCOT for the balancing energy market
during peak and nonpeak periods; and
(4) ways to include the associated changes in energy
prices due to the effect of energy efficiency programs, as found
under Subdivision (3) of this subsection, as a factor included in an
analysis used to determine whether a program is cost-effective.
(b) The commission shall report its findings from the study
conducted under this section to the legislature not later than
September 1, 2012.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2011.