Public Citizen Testimony on SB1, Article VIII
SB1, Article VIII – Regulatory – testimony by Public Citizen on the Public Utility Commission
To: Chairman Huffman and the Members of the Senate Committee on Finance.
CC: Sen. Juan Hinojosa, Sen. Carol Alvarado, Sen. Paul Bettencourt, Sen. Donna Campbell, Sen. Brandon Creighton, Sen. Pete Flores, Sen. Bob Hall, Sen. Lois W. Kolkhorst, Sen. Robert Nichols, Sen. Angela Paxton, Sen. Charles Perry, Sen. Charles Schwertner, Sen. Royce West, Sen. Judith Zaffirini
Via hand delivery and by email.
From: Kamil Cook (kcook@citizen.org) and Adrian Shelley (ashelley@citizen.org), Public Citizen, 512-477-1155
Re: SB1, Article VIII – Regulatory – testimony by Public Citizen on the Public Utility Commission
Dear Chairman Huffman and Members of the Committee:
Public Citizen appreciates the opportunity to provide these comments to the Senate Finance Committee on the General Appropriations Bill for the Public Utility Commission (PUC). We would welcome the opportunity to discuss our recommendations further.
Support the baseline revenue of the PUC
Public Citizen supports the baseline General Revenue Fund of the Public Utility Commission of Texas. We also support the performance measure targets with one revision: specify the “Number of Megawatts Resulting from Texas Energy Fund (TEF) Programs” to show that those megawatt goals can be met by the megawatts avoided/saved through energy efficiency programs and technology funded by TEF. Alternatively, the PUC could add a goal for ‘megawatts avoided/saved’ through resiliency and energy efficiency upgrades.
Support for funding to better support the PUC
We support Exceptional Items 1, 2, 3, and 5.
EI 1 requests $7.47 million for a staff increase.1 As the population of Texas grows, more people will file cases, hearings, and various proceedings with the PUC and a robust PUC should have enough staff to handle the workload.
EI 2 requests $3.95 million to implement the Case Management System, as recommended by the Sunset Commission in the 88th Legislature. This allocation would go towards increasing staff and adopting new hardware, software, and services and we support that.
EI 3 requests $2.76 million for staffing and software development for infrastructure resiliency and reliability. We support this because increasing infrastructure resiliency and reliability helps Texans save money while making our grid more reliable.
Lastly, EI 5 requests $500,000 for improving the Power to Choose website. An improved user interface improves Texans’ interactions with the PUC, improving effectiveness and trust in the agency.
Texas Energy Fund Related Items
Public Citizen has concerns about how Texas Energy Fund (TEF) projects will impact communities across the state. In addition to new gas plants, voters supported TEF funding for backup power—which could include solar and battery storage—and for investments in resilience projects outside of ERCOT. Spending $10 billion on gas plants alone would not fulfill the promise of the TEF.
One concern is proposed rider 5 could be interpreted to mean that all $5 billion would be allocated to electric generating facilities, rather than to backup power packages or resiliency projects outside of ERCOT. We would like to see the wording changed to make clear that these other items will be included in this round of funding.
Similarly, we would like to see wording in EI 4 clarifying the four additional Full Time Employees (FTE) that will staff programs from the TEF also be used for the backup power section of the TEF, not just for the construction, maintenance, modernization, and operation of electric facilities.
Lastly, we would like to see language ensuring money for resilience improvements outside of ERCOT not just go to aging gas plants, but also to improve transmission and distribution lines, weatherizing infrastructure, and improving vegetation management. In many weather emergencies in Texas, the distribution grid is often responsible for outages for residential customers. Hurricane Beryl was one such event.2 Improved resilience of the distribution grid will protect everyday Texans.