By: Carona S.B. No. 712
(In the Senate - Filed February 24, 2005; March 2, 2005,
read first time and referred to Committee on Business and Commerce;
April 22, 2005, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
Substitute by the following vote: Yeas 7, Nays 0; April 22, 2005,
sent to printer.)
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 712 By: Carona
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the legislature's goal for energy efficiency in this
state and related energy efficiency programs.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 39.905, Utilities Code, is amended to
read as follows:
Sec. 39.905. GOAL FOR ENERGY EFFICIENCY. (a) It is the
goal of the legislature that:
(1) electric utilities will administer energy savings
incentive programs in a market-neutral, nondiscriminatory manner
but will not offer underlying competitive services;
(2) all customers, in all customer classes, have a
choice of and access to energy efficiency alternatives and other
choices from the market that allow each customer to reduce energy
consumption, peak demand, or [and reduce] energy costs; [and]
(3) each electric utility will provide, through
market-based standard offer programs or limited, targeted,
market-transformation programs, incentives sufficient for retail
electric providers and competitive energy service providers to
acquire additional cost-effective energy efficiency equivalent to
at least 10 percent of the electric utility's annual growth in
demand;
(4) each electric utility may use up to 10 percent of
the money approved for energy efficiency programs in the utility's
most recent full rate proceeding before the commission, for the
purpose of performing the necessary research and development to
foster continuous improvement and innovation in the application of
technologies and program design and implementation; and
(5) in addition to cost recovery for expenditures
related to the goals in this section, the commission shall allow
each utility, in its next full rate case before the commission, to
recover the costs for acquiring additional cost-effective energy
efficiency equivalent to an amount of up to 20 percent of the
utility's growth in demand and, in addition, shall allow as a
motivation to maximize cost-effective energy efficiency an
incentive to the utility equal to five percent of the additional
program payments.
(b) The commission shall provide oversight and adopt rules
and procedures, as necessary, to ensure that the utilities can
achieve the goal of this section [is achieved by January 1, 2004].
(c) A standard offer program under Subsection (a)(3) must be
neutral with respect to technologies, equipment, and fuels,
including thermal, chemical, mechanical, and electrical energy
storage technologies.
(d) The commission shall adopt the following
market-transformation program options that the utilities may
choose to implement in order to satisfy the goal in Subsection
(a)(3):
(1) energy-smart schools;
(2) appliance retirement and recycling;
(3) air conditioning system tune-ups; and
(4) the use of trees or other landscaping for energy
efficiency.
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 2005.
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