By: Virdell H.B. No. 1378
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to municipal and county regulation of certain electric
energy storage.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Chapter 247, Local Government Code, as added by
Chapter 19 (S.B. 1017), Acts of the 88th Legislature, Regular
Session, 2023, is amended by adding Section 247.004 to read as
follows:
Sec. 247.004. REGULATION OF ELECTRIC ENERGY STORAGE. (a)
This section applies only to electric energy storage intended to be
used to sell at wholesale energy or ancillary services, as defined
by Section 35.004, Utilities Code.
(b) A municipality by ordinance and a county by order shall
prohibit the installation of electric energy storage within 500
yards of real property owned by a person other than the owner or
operator of the proposed storage unless the owner or operator of the
proposed storage obtains written consent from each owner of the
real property.
(c) For the purposes of this section, the measurement of
distance between an electric energy storage structure and a
property line shall be taken from the point on the structure that is
nearest to the nearest point on the property line.
(d) A county may not regulate under Subsection (b) the
installation of electric energy storage within the corporate
boundaries of a municipality.
SECTION 2. Not later than October 1, 2025, a municipality by
ordinance and a county by order shall adopt a prohibition on the
installation of electric energy storage as required by Section
247.004, Local Government Code, as added by this Act. The ordinance
or order may not require the removal of any electric energy storage
the installation of which began before the effective date of the
ordinance or order.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2025.