SAN ANTONIO — Texas lawmakers passed multiple bills to improve the power grid this legislative session and several were focused on bringing new power plants to the state.
In particular, SB 2627 would set aside $10 billion in state funds that could support loans to build new power plants.
Texas District 5 Senator Charles Schwertner told colleagues the bill was a long time coming when he introduced it on the floor in May.
"We have discussed in the interim and on this floor many times the need to add flexibility and resource adequacy to secure Texas's energy needs long term," Schwertner said.
During a CPS Energy board meeting on Monday, Trustee John Steen asked Kari Meyer with their government relations team what this meant for the future.
"For people listening in, was any legislation enacted that would have the effect of increasing monthly bills?" Steen asked.
Meyer said, at this point, staff still didn't know. The legislature did provide new guidelines for a new plan meant to incentivize more power plant investment in Texas. That plan, called the "Performance Credit Mechanism", would essentially pay thermal power plants a bonus when they committed to providing power at times when they grid needed it most. The concept would reward power plants that were reliable but the cost would eventually be transferred to Texans.
Still, Meyer said it's not clear how long the state would take to put this into practice.
"Things that were passed relative to the performance credit mechanism and others are still in conceptual form and going though the regulatory phase will inform those decisions," Meyer said.
At the same time, Meyer said SB 2627, which was mentioned above, would still need to be approved by voters in November before companies could even apply for the loans. Meyer also said SB 2627 was filed very late in the legislative session and they are still looking into its effect on the market.
This means neither of the state actions would be affecting customers bills in the short term. CPS Energy Board Trustee Rudy Garza said the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) could end up taking a year or more on implementing the new laws related to the performance credit mechanism.
"The PUC is going to be in this between now and the next legislative session and, even then, may not have it all figured out between now and then," Garza said.
The PUC had a meeting later in the week but didn't indicate any swift action on the new legislation at this time.