Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and state Sen. Charles Schwertner (R-Georgetown) released a joint statement on March 9 announcing their support for Senate Bills 6 and 7, two pieces of legislation aimed at ensuring a reliable energy grid across Texas and attracting new sources of reliable thermal electricity generation.
Patrick named both bills to his top 10 list of priority legislation this session.
“Since Winter Storm Uri, I have been abundantly clear that we need to bring new dispatchable [primarily new natural gas plants] generation online as soon as possible to make sure that Texans have reliable power under any circumstance,” Patrick said in a statement.
“SB 6 will put steel in the ground to serve as the state’s energy insurance policy and provide low-interest loans for existing dispatchable generators so they can improve the resources we already have," he added. "SB 7 addresses market uncertainty and levels the playing field between renewables (windmills and solar) and dispatchable energy by targeting money at the dispatchable assets that we need. Every part of these reforms represents a significant victory for Texas ratepayers.”
Brent Bennett, policy director for Life:Powered, an initiative of the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) to raise America’s energy IQ, said TPPF backs one of the bills.
“We fully support SB 7’s attempt to apply cost allocation to the new reliability service the PUC is developing [PCM or related concept],” Bennett told Austin Journal. “That’s a realization of what we have been pushing for since 2020."
"We could support the new ancillary service being proposed in SB 7 if structured correctly, although we are concerned that it will be duplicative of what already exists in ERCOT’s suite of ancillary services," he added. "We also don’t consider it to be enough on its own. We need a more comprehensive reliability product.”
He said TPPF was not commenting publicly on SB 6 at this time.
Schwertner issued a statement explaining why he introduced both bills.
“These legislative proposals set forward the framework that ensures Texans have the reliability, transparency and security on our power grid that they deserve,” he said. “Texans must be assured that we have adequate electricity to power their homes and businesses under any condition and these bills, once signed into law, will do that.”
Bennett pointed to two other pieces of legislation that he said had worthwhile elements to aid in cleaning up Texas’ power problems.
“We can support the PCM if [and only if] it includes the cost-allocation element of SB 7 and is calibrated within appropriate limits,” he said. “That’s the point of the ‘guardrails’ bill, Senate Bill 2012, which we will support if they can make some important fixes to it.”
SB 2012 is aimed at PCM. It would ban a reliability program or credits from being based on generation during times of high demand and low supply.
“We also think the transmission cost allocation in Senate Bill 1287 is important,” Bennett said. “We need more discipline in generation siting decisions and need to stop paying for every penny of new wind and solar transmission upgrades. They need to pay for some of it.”
SB 1287 sets a limit on distribution and transmission fees in monthly bills for consumers.
Research recently published by the Energy Alliance reported that since 2007, wind and solar generators in Texas collected $66 billion in investments.
Additionally, generators were on the receiving end of more than $21 billion in local, state and federal subsidies. In that same time frame, renewables grew their share of the Texas energy market from 3% to 31%. The research projects that the figure would grow to 37% by the end of 2023.
The Energy Alliance’s research concluded by listing a number of recommendations to improve the reliability and price of electricity in Texas, one of which was to combat renewable energy subsidies head on to fix price distortions caused by those tax incentives.