87R8893 JXC-F
 
  By: Hancock S.B. No. 1278
 
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT
  relating to the responsibility for ancillary services costs
  incurred for the operation of intermittent wind and solar
  resources.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  Section 35.004(e), Utilities Code, is amended to
  read as follows:
         (e)  The commission shall ensure that ancillary services
  necessary to facilitate the transmission of electric energy are
  available at reasonable prices with terms and conditions that are
  not unreasonably preferential, prejudicial, discriminatory,
  predatory, or anticompetitive. Ancillary services costs incurred
  by the ERCOT independent system operator to address reliability
  issues arising from the operation of intermittent wind and solar
  resources must be directly assigned by the ERCOT independent system
  operator to those resources. In this subsection, "ancillary
  services" means services necessary to facilitate the transmission
  of electric energy including load following, standby power, backup
  power, reactive power, and any other services as the commission may
  determine by rule. On the introduction of customer choice in the
  ERCOT power region, acquisition of generation-related ancillary
  services on a nondiscriminatory basis by the independent
  organization in ERCOT on behalf of entities selling electricity at
  retail shall be deemed to meet the requirements of this subsection.
         SECTION 2.  The Public Utility Commission of Texas shall
  adopt any rules required to implement Section 35.004(e), Utilities
  Code, as amended by this Act, not later than January 1, 2022.
         SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2021.