By:  Patterson                               S.B. No. 1670

         97S0767/1                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

                                       AN ACT

 1-1     relating to increased customer options in the purchase and

 1-2     management of electricity.

 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subtitle D, Title II, Public Utility Regulatory

 1-5     Act of 1995 (Article 1446c-0, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is

 1-6     amended by adding Section 2.157 to read as follows:

 1-7           Sec. 2.157.  CUSTOMER ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT.  Notwithstanding

 1-8     any other provision in this Act, a person that purchases

 1-9     electricity from an investor-owned electric utility in more than

1-10     one metered location shall have the option to receive a single bill

1-11     based on the aggregated load for any or all of its metered

1-12     locations within the utility's certificated service area.  A

1-13     customer choosing this option shall notify the utility in writing.

1-14     The utility shall have 30 days from the date it receives

1-15     notification in which to convert that person's accounts.

1-16           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-17     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-18     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-19     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-20     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

1-21     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

1-22     passage, and it is so enacted.