By: Hancock S.B. No. 1278
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the responsibility for ancillary services costs
incurred for the operation of intermittent generation resources.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 35.004(e), Utilities Code, is amended to
read as follows:
(e) The commission shall ensure that ancillary services
necessary to facilitate the transmission of electric energy are
available at reasonable prices with terms and conditions that are
not unreasonably preferential, prejudicial, discriminatory,
predatory, or anticompetitive. The commission shall require,
consistent with cost-causation principles, intermittent generation
resources in the ERCOT power region to purchase ancillary services
and replacement power sufficient to manage net load variability.
In this subsection, "ancillary services" means services necessary
to facilitate the transmission of electric energy including load
following, standby power, backup power, reactive power, and any
other services as the commission may determine by rule. On the
introduction of customer choice in the ERCOT power region,
acquisition of generation-related ancillary services on a
nondiscriminatory basis by the independent organization in ERCOT on
behalf of entities selling electricity at retail shall be deemed to
meet the requirements of this subsection.
SECTION 2. The Public Utility Commission of Texas shall
adopt any rules required to implement Section 35.004(e), Utilities
Code, as amended by this Act, not later than January 1, 2022. The
commission shall ensure that the rules do not unreasonably impede
or impair performance under contracts entered into before the
effective date of this Act.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2021.