Dear Friends,
I am writing to share an important update from our 391 Hill Country Energy Sub-Regional Planning Commission (HCESRPC) working group on protecting Texas ratepayers, grid reliability, and local communities.
A short bit of background helps explain why this matters. In 1999, the Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 7 and restructured the electric market toward competition. Retail customer choice opened across much of the ERCOT region on January 1, 2002. That competitive framework has real benefits — but it also left a gap: developers have substantial freedom to choose the type and location of new generation and battery storage, while Texas law does not clearly require a project-by-project public-interest review of the full system consequences before those projects receive final market clearance.
Our working group has prepared a proposed amendment to Senate Bill 3 (87th Legislature) to close that gap — addressing not only Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), but the root cause: the lack of clear regulation and evaluation of whether the best type and location of new power generation is being proposed.
With this amendment, Texas has an opportunity to strengthen grid reliability while protecting ratepayers, critical infrastructure, and local communities. It would give Public Utilities Commission of Texas (PUCT) and ERCOT clearer, enforceable oversight over large generation and electric energy storage facilities (EESF/BESS) — including siting, reliability, system cost, cybersecurity, foreign-adversary supply-chain exposure, remote operation, and emergency readiness — by requiring a mandatory PUCT Large Resource Reliability, Location, and Public Interest Finding.
In plain terms: before a covered project gets final ERCOT resource registration, energization for commercial service, commercial-operation status, reliability accreditation, or state support, PUCT — with ERCOT and transmission-provider technical support — would have to evaluate location, deliverability, reliability contribution, total system cost, ratepayer-funded transmission impact, cybersecurity, foreign-adversary critical-infrastructure compliance, emergency preparedness, and storage-facility safety risks. The cost of the independent analysis leading to that finding would be charged to the generation developer — not Texas ratepayers.
Federal action reinforces the security piece of this case. President Trump’s Executive Order 14420 declared a National Emergency to Secure the United States Bulk-Power System and expressly includes battery energy storage systems within “bulk-power system electric equipment.” With 765 kV transmission lines receiving heavy opposition during recent Senate committee review and even Senators calling for a moratorium on these projects, we believe the time is right to press forward — not only on BESS, but on these root causes — and that an amendment to SB 3 is the best vehicle.
We have already provided the proposed amendment to Representative Virdell, Representative Troxclair, and Senator Campbell in the hope of gaining bill sponsors. We have other legislators in mind to approach for support.
Attached for your review:
1. Proposed SB 3 Amendment (PUCT/ERCOT Generation & BESS Oversight) — working draft
2. Legislative Sponsor Brief
Thank you for taking a few minutes with these materials. If you have questions, or know legislators who should see this packet, please reply and let me know.
I view this amendment as the culmination of 2 years of hard work and frustration at PUCT who have repeatedly told us that they don’t actively play a role in planning the type and location of generation resources (and hence are unwilling to hold a planning meeting with our commission as required under Chapter 391 of the Texas Government Code). There are many other things that we are doing to place obstacles in the paths of these BESS developers for specific locations, but I see this amendment as the best means to fix the root cause of our unreliable and increasingly costly grid. If adopted every Texas ratepayer will benefit and our grid will be safer, more reliable and resilient, and generation will be sited in close proximity to the demand, making everything more efficient and protecting small remote rural counties from the hazards associated with BESS and high voltage transmission lines that don’t directly benefit their citizens.
If you want to learn more, join us in our next HCESRPC Board meeting this Tuesday, September 15th at 1:00 pm in the Gillespie County Commissioners Courtroom.
Best regards,
Rich Paces
Kerr County Commissioner, Precinct 2
and President, Hill Country Energy Sub-Regional Planning Commission
(830) 343-9107
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