The Texas State Senate – 75th Senate Interim Committee on Electric Utility Restructuring

The following items are the Senate Interim Committee on Electric Utility Restructuring Reports to the 76th Legislature:
Cover Letter (5 KB, PDF format)
Acknowledgement (4 KB, PDF format)
Charge (33 KB, PDF format)
Report (817 KB, PDF format)
Appendix (1.2 MB, PDF format)

Interim Charges

Study and determine any needed changes in the Public Utility Regulatory Act and related statutes to create a competitive Texas electric market that is open to all classes of retail customers. Such review shall include but not be limited to the following issues:

an appropriate date for opening the market to direct end-use customer access, and whether a phase-in program for public schools or other governmental units is warranted;
methods for quantification of a utility's investments that would be uneconomic in a fully competitive market (stranded costs) and appropriate methods for recovery of costs (including rate freezes, adjustments to depreciation, transition charges, securitization);
balancing rate reductions with recovery of stranded costs during the transition to a competitive market;
the basic structural requirements for the competitive market to serve as an effective and efficient replacement for traditional regulation;
provisions for municipal and cooperative utilities recognizing the importance of maintaining local control of community-owned systems and protecting the financial integrity of cooperative and municipal utilities;
safeguards necessary for customer protection in a fully competitive marketplace (including designation of a provider of last resort, protections for low-income customers, obligations to be imposed on all providers, ability of providers to serve customers on an aggregated basis, and fair marketing and sales practices);
system reliability and service quality standards needed to ensure safe and reliable power and the role of the independent system operator in a fully competitive market;
environmental issues relating to a competitive marketplace;
development of renewable energy resources such as windpower in a competitive marketplace; and
scope and nature of the continuing role of regulation in a deregulated electric power industry including oversight of market power.

Make recommendations for legislative and regulatory action, if necessary.