Sweeping Legislation To Overhaul State's Electricity Market Heads To Texas House

[Elderberry]

Texas Tribune By Erin Douglas 3/30/2021

The Texas Senate on Monday unanimously approved a sweeping bill that would overhaul the state’s electricity industry and infrastructure, including mandating that power plants prepare for extreme weather and outlawing risky indexed retail electric plans.

Senate Bill 3, filed by Republican state Sen. Charles Schwertner of Georgetown, now heads to the Texas House where its prospects are uncertain. Members in the lower chamber will take up a series of related, standalone bills on Tuesday.

“There were a multitude of failures,” Schwertner said from the Senate floor Monday, referring to the massive power outages during the deadly winter storm. “And we’re fixing the problems.”

SB 3 would require all power generators, transmission lines, natural gas facilities and pipelines to make upgrades for extreme weather — a process known as weatherization. Most power generators and gas facilities were not equipped to handle temperatures that dipped into single digits last month.

More:https://www.hppr.org/post/sweeping-legislation-overhaul-states-electricity-market-heads-texas-house

[thackney]

...outlawing risky indexed retail electric plans....

Just for clarity, all indexed retail plans are not on the same level of risk.  I am VERY happy with my indexed plan that I have used since 2004.  It is indexed with the month average price of Natural Gas.  My bill was approximately double normal for the month that included the week of the Texas Freeze.  My usage was way up, my power mostly stayed on.