BILL ANALYSIS

S.B. 924

By: Carona

Energy Resources

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

According to interested parties, an expired statutory provision required certain municipally owned utilities and electric cooperatives to submit a report to the State Energy Conservation Office on the combined effects of the utility's or electric cooperative's energy efficiency activities. Those parties contend that such reporting can provide useful information and should be continued. 

S.B. 924 seeks to require the utilities and electric cooperatives to submit annual reports regarding energy savings and demand.  In addition, the bill seeks to require the Energy Systems Laboratory at the Texas Engineering Experiment Station of the Texas A&M University System to analyze the data provided in the reports and share that analysis with specified state and federal entities.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

S.B. 924 amends the Utilities Code to require a municipally owned utility and an electric cooperative, if the cooperative had retail sales of more than 500,00 megawatt hours in 2005, to report each year to the State Energy Conservation Office, beginning April 1, 2012, information regarding the combined effects of the energy efficiency activities of the utility or electric cooperative, as applicable, from the previous calendar year, including the utility's or electric cooperative's annual goals, programs enacted to achieve those goals, and any achieved energy demand or savings goals. The bill requires the reports to be on a standardized form developed by the office.  The bill removes an expired provision requiring such a utility or electric cooperative to report to the office, in a form and manner determined by the utility or electric cooperative in consultation with the office, information regarding the combined effects of the energy efficiency activities of the utility or electric cooperative.

S.B. 924 requires the office to provide the reports required under the bill's provisions to the Energy Systems Laboratory at the Texas Engineering Experiment Station of The Texas A&M University System. The bill requires the laboratory to calculate the energy savings and estimated pollution reductions that resulted from the reported activities and to share the results of the analysis with the Public Utility Commission of Texas, ERCOT, the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2011.