In 1999, the Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 7, opening up the Lone Star State’s electricity market to competition. Since then, Texas has been at the forefront of energy innovation. Now, nearly 20 years later, distributed energy resources (DERs) are the cutting edge of energy innovation, continuing the two-decade process of making the Texas grid more secure, clean, reliable, and affordable. With the COVID-19 public health crisis changing where and how we use electricity, just as it has changed where we work and how we learn, DERs couldn’t have come along at a better time. 

In odd-numbered years, the Texas Legislature meets for 140 days starting on the second Tuesday in January to consider the state’s regular business, with the main objective of passing a two-year budget. This year, as always, bills introduced with potential impact on the state’s energy system covered a wide range of topics, both positive and negative for advanced energy. This session, the Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance (TAEBA) was directly engaged with or closely watching approximately 80 bills. When the Legislature gaveled out on Memorial Day, the outcomes for advanced energy were net positive, with tax incentives for large-scale renewable energy projects preserved and onerous fees on electric vehicles avoided. And while the Legislature didn’t pass a bill on ownership of battery storage, that issue goes back to the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) with some clear indications of legislative preference.  Here are the highlights from a very busy legislative session.

In a win for advanced energy, the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) declined to revise the current mechanism for allocating transmission losses at its Jan. 17 meeting, supporting a position taken by the Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance (TAEBA). The PUCT also took another positive step by opening a review of EV-related issues to prepare for expected growth.