Thread by @douglewinenergy

#SB3 and #HB4492 conference reports are filed. I'll add thoughts to this 🧵as I go through them over the next hour or so.

#txlege #txenergy

https://twitter.com/douglewinenergy/status/1398827862623494145

#SB3 Headlines:
- Weaker gas regs (House version) are IN the bill.
- Most egregious anti-renewable language is OUT of the bill.
- one minor #demandresponse provision kept IN the bill
- #energyefficiency and most local power gen/storage backup OUT of the bill.
more details soon

Conf report kept House language that required gas supply to be mapped by the Electricity Supply Chain Mapping Committee before any regs are created. Cmte report due 1/1/22, @txrrc rules 6 months later. There will be no gas regulations required before this coming winter.

#txlege

The Senate language to add “replacement power” cost and require renewables to “manage net load variability” is OUT. It was unworkable and ill-conceived policy.

The House’s language on “dispatchable generation”--problematic but less so--remains IN. (cont)

Given gas wasn’t very dispatchable during the storm, it’ll be interesting to see how @PUCTX handles this. Note there’s a requirement for ERCOT to modify ancillary services "in a manner consistent with cost causation principles." The may to shall, see below, is important.

Ancillary service costs are driven by the largest generators on the system (nuke and coal in that order) and by very large loads (think steel mills). If those trip off, they can create frequency deviations. This requirement to modify will definitely be something to watch.

more from the #SB3 conference report:
@DonnaHowardTX amendment to include the climatologist in consultations as rules are being developed to prepare for storms is IN the final bill. @txrrc and @PUCTX must consider climatologist's weather predictions to make rules

@ErinForYall amendment to get onsite generation and #storage at nursing homes, hospitals, and dialysis centers is OUT. The Senate's opposition on this is baffling. I'd love to hear an explanation. This seems like an absolute obvious thing to do.

#txlege #txenergy

more soon...

More of what's in and out of #sb3
The House’s State Energy Plan Advisory Committee is IN the bill. I think, #txenergy nerds, check me, this will be the first State Energy Plan since @GovernorPerry’s competitiveness council in 2007. pubs.naruc.org/pub.cfm?id=537…

Worth nothing that Gov. Perry’s Council found “#Energyefficiency and #demandresponse measures currently have a lower cost per kW than any new generation resource.” NO EE and *a little* DR in this bill.

Let's look at that.

Transmission and distribution utilities (TDUs) like CenterPoint and Oncor have #demandresponse programs, called load management. Rep. King added an amendment that the PUC shall allow a TDU to create a load management program for nonresidential customers.

Every TDU should design one to ensure in times of deep scarcity, one step before load shed (aka outages) in EEA2 , all commercial office buildings are shedding non critical loads, like, say, hypothetically, lights at 2AM on a holiday weekend during widespread outages.

Not talked about much, the House had stripped the Senate language that required a cap of no more than 12 hours on $9k peak power prices. Beyond the cap, generators are "reimbursed for reasonable, verifiable operating costs." Senate language is IN the final bill. #txlege