Recent Developments in the Regulation of Electric Utility Resource Planning in Texas

Abstract

The Texas Legislature has charged the Public Utility Commission of Texas with the responsibility to license utility power plants and transmission lines, and develop a statewide electrical energy plan. Related duties include the encouragement of qualifying cogenerators and qualifying small power producers, approval of certain purchased power contracts, the review of achievements in the conservation of resources, and the review of electric utility load forecasts and capacity resource plans. There has been widespread agreement that the Commission's procedures for carrying out these responsibilities could be streamlined. During the past two years the Commission has begun to establish a more orderly process for dealing with licensing cases. This paper describes the current statewide electrical energy plan, the pending power plant licensing cases at the Commission, the statutory requirements related to resource planning, recent changes in the Commission's rules concerning power plant licensing, the portions of the Energy Policy Act of 1992 that affect resource planning, proposals made by the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission, and recent developments at the Commission concerning integrated resource planning rules. The paper concludes with the authors' opinions regarding several important resource planning issues.