88R13770 TYPED
By: Goldman H.B. No. 4002
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to water control and improvement district customers of
certain electric cooperatives.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. It is the intent of the legislature that this Act
ensure cost-effective and reliable siting of critical water
infrastructure operated by a water control and improvement
district.
SECTION 2. Subchapter B, Chapter 37, Utilities Code, is
amended by adding Section 37.062 to read as follows:
Sec. 37.062. SERVICE AREA EXCEPTION REQUESTED BY CERTAIN
WATER CONTROL AND IMPROVEMENT DISTRICTS. (a) In this section:
(1) "Consenting entity" means an electric utility that
consents to providing a district with retail electric service;
(2) "District" means a water control and improvement
district;
(3) "District facility" means a power-consuming
facility owned by a district that takes retail electric service at
transmission voltage;
(4) "ERCOT" has the meaning assigned by Section
31.002;
(5) "Requesting district" means a water control and
improvement district that has requested to receive retail electric
service provided at transmission voltage from a consenting entity
other than the electric cooperative certificated to provide the
district with such service.
(b) This section applies only to a water control and
improvement district that:
(1) receives retail electric service in ERCOT from an
electric cooperative on the date this Act takes effect;
(2) has the authority to impose an ad valorem tax; and
(3) only provides wholesale water service.
(c) Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, on
the request of a water control and improvement district described
by Subsection (b) of this section, a consenting utility may request
a service area exception from the commission to provide retail
electric service to the requesting district at:
(1) the location of a designated district facility
where the requesting district is currently receiving retail
electric service from an electric cooperative on the date the
request for service area exception is filed with the commission; or
(2) the site of a future district facility that will be
located in the certificated area of the electric cooperative.
(d) A consenting entity may request a service area exception
under Subsection (c) of this section if the consenting entity:
(1) has an existing certificated area on the date the
request is filed that is contiguous to the certificated area of the
electric cooperative from which the district facility is receiving
service or the site where a future district facility will receive
service; and
(2) has an existing certificated area within 10 miles
or less of the applicable district facility.
(e) Section 37.056(c) does not apply to a request filed
under Subsection (c) of this section.
(f) Notwithstanding any other provision in 16 T.A.C.
Chapter 25, an electric cooperative may not contest and need not
consent to an application filed under Subsection (c) of this
section.
(g) The commission shall grant an application received
under Subsection (c) of this section within 45 days of the filing of
a complete application, and in accordance with the application
shall either:
(1) amend the consenting entity's certificate to
include the locations of each water control and improvement
district facility identified in the application; and amend the
certificate of the electric cooperative that was previously
certificated, on the date the application was filed, to remove the
locations of each water control and improvement district facility
identified in the application; or
(2) notwithstanding Section 37.060 or any other
provision of this chapter, amend the consenting entity's
certificate to include the locations of each water control and
improvement district facility identified in the application.
(h) Following approval of an application under this
section, a requesting district shall be responsible for paying
associated costs as follows:
(1) construction costs of any new transmission
facilities required to interconnect the district facilities
identified in the application to the consenting entity's
transmission system, to the extent that such costs are not
otherwise recoverable in the consenting utility's wholesale
transmission rates;
(2) any nonbypassable charges and other amounts that
the district is contractually obligated to pay to the electric
cooperative that was providing retail transmission service to the
requesting district on the date the application was filed; and
(3) other than the costs described in Subsection
(h)(2) of this section, the requesting district is not required to
pay additional stranded costs or penalties to the electric
cooperative as a result of the service area exception.
(i) The commission may only approve one application per
district facility from each water control and improvement district
under this section.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2023.