SB 2012 which was voted out of the Senate as amended was heard in the House Committee on State Affairs last week. A spotlight on the bill:
- A version of the PCM was approved
- No costs to loads (REPs and end users) until costs of this program are verified by ERCOT and the IMM in great detail
- Real-time co-optimization must be implemented (due by summer 2024, but Jewell indicated it could be argued that it is already implemented)
- A central clearing system must be implemented by ERCOT (likely less than a year)
- Limited to dispatchable resources
- Rewards generation for being available to perform” during net peak periods (highest demand and lowest available resources as determined by PUCT on a look-back basis)
- Penalties for non-performance
- Biennial cost-benefit study by the IMM
- No locational price differences
- Collateral required of generators in case of nonperformance
- All costs paid by LOADS (not assigned to renewable resources) – so REPs and industrials pay
- PUCT must confirm that non-generating REPs are not disadvantaged compared to generating-affiliated REPs
- A cost cap of $500M per year
This bill was voted out of committee favorably as substituted on April 24 and would need to get on an upcoming House calendar before the bill can continue to move. If the bill is added to the calendar for a vote on the House floor, and if it is passed out of the House, it would still need to go back over to the Senate where the body can either accept the changes or move to a conference committee to work on the differences.