Texas Legislature Approves Bills To Require Power Plants To ‘Weatherize,’ Among Other Measures To Overhaul Electric Grid
The Texas House and Senate both approved negotiated versions of Senate Bill 2 and Senate Bill 3, the two sweeping bills to change the state’s power grid and the people who oversee it.
The Texas House and Senate on Sunday approved sweeping legislation to overhaul the state’s power grid following the disastrous and deadly winter storm in February that left more than 4.8 million homes and businesses without electricity for days. More than 100 people died.
As time ran out in the legislative session, the Texas House and Senate made last-minute changes to the bills. State lawmakers responded to February’s deadly winter storm with a few key changes to the state’s power grid that would address some issues exposed by the storm — such as requiring power plants to upgrade for more extreme weather — but did not make the sweeping structural changes to Texas’ electricity market that some experts have called for in the aftermath of the power crisis.
Senate Bill 2 and Senate Bill 3 will still need to be approved by Gov. Greg Abbott.
Power plants required to weatherize in Senate Bill 3
May 30, 2021 at 7:53 p.m.
Texas lawmakers approved a bill to require power generation companies to better prepare their facilities to withstand extreme weather.
The requirement for power generators and transmission lines to “weatherize” had broad support in both the House and Senate for inclusion in Senate Bill 3, a sweeping piece of legislation that attempts to overhaul the state’s power grid laws and was approved by both chambers Sunday night.
The House had advanced a $2 billion plan to help power companies pay for the upgrades, but the bill to create the fund with the state’s rainy day fund dollars for the low-cost loans and grants stalled in the Senate and no language is included in Senate Bill 3 to create the fund.
