This website will be unavailable from Friday, April 26, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. through Monday, April 29, 2024 at 7:00 a.m. due to data center maintenance.
By: Carona S.B. No. 711
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to metering services provided to certain electricity
customers.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 39.107, Utilities Code, is amended by
amending Subsections (a) and (b) and by adding Subsection (h) to
read as follows:
(a) On introduction of customer choice in a service area,
metering services for the area shall continue to be provided by the
transmission and distribution utility affiliate of the electric
utility that was serving the area before the introduction of
customer choice. Metering services provided to commercial and
industrial customers that are required by the independent system
operator to have an interval data recorder meter may [shall] be
provided on a competitive basis [beginning on January 1, 2004].
(b) Metering services provided to residential customers and
to nonresidential customers other than those required by the
independent system operator to have an interval data recorder meter
shall continue to be provided by the transmission and distribution
utility affiliate of the electric utility that was serving the area
before the introduction of customer choice [until the later of
September 1, 2005, or the date on which at least 40 percent of those
residential customers are taking service from unaffiliated retail
electric providers]. Metering and billing services provided to
residential customers shall be governed by the customer safeguards
adopted by the commission under Section 39.101.
(h) The commission shall establish a nonbypassable
surcharge for an electric utility or transmission and distribution
utility to use to recover reasonable and necessary costs incurred
in deploying advanced metering and meter information networks to
residential customers and nonresidential customers other than
those required by the independent system operator to have an
interval data recorder meter. The commission shall ensure that the
nonbypassable surcharge reflects a deployment of advanced meters
that is no more than one-third of the utility's total meters over
each calendar year, and shall ensure that the nonbypassable
surcharge does not result in the utility recovering more than its
actual, fully allocated meter and meter information network costs.
The expenses must be allocated to the customer classes receiving
the services, based on the electric utility's most recently
approved tariffs.
SECTION 2. (a) In recognition that advances in digital and
communications equipment and technologies, including new metering
and meter information technologies, have the potential to increase
the reliability of the regional electrical network, encourage
dynamic pricing and demand response, make better use of generation
assets and transmission and generation assets, and provide more
choices for consumers, the legislature encourages the adoption of
these technologies by electric utilities in this state.
(b) The Public Utility Commission of Texas shall study the
efforts of electric utilities to benefit from the use of advanced
metering and metering information networks. The commission shall
present to the legislature on or before September 30, 2006, a
report detailing those efforts and identifying changes in this
state's policies that may be necessary to remove barriers to the use
of advanced metering and metering information networks or of other
advanced transmission and distribution technologies.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2005.
COMMITTEE AMENDMENT NO. 1
Amend S.B. 711 as follows:
In SECTION 1 -
Page 1, line 24, after "electric providers].", insert the
following:
"Retail electric providers serving residential and nonresidential
customers other than those required by the independent system
operator to have an interval data recorder meter may request that
the transmission and distribution utility provide specialized
meters, meter features, or add-on accessories so long as they are
technically feasible and generally available in the market and
provided that the retail electric provider pays the differential
cost of such a meter or accessory."
In SECTION 2:
On page 2, line 2, after "39.101.", insert the following: "All meter
data, including all data generated, provided, or otherwise made
available, by advanced meters and meter information networks, shall
belong to a customer, including data used to calculate charges for
service, historical load data, and any other proprietary customer
information. A customer may authorize its data to be provided to
one or more retail electric providers under rules and charges
established by the commission."
On page 2 line 27, after the word "utilities" add "and other market
participants and customers"
on page 3 line 2, after the date September 30, 2006, add "and every
even numbered year thereafter,"
On page 3 line 6, after the period, add a new sentence, "Not later
than September 2010, the Commission shall specifically evaluate
whether advances in technology, changes in the market, or other
unanticipated factors, would allow meters or various meter-related
products or services to be provided more efficiently or more
effectively through competition, and make recommendations for
legislative changes as appropriate."
Hunter