Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick Statement on the Unanimous Passage of Senate Bill 3 - the Power Grid Stability Bil

Image
Body

"This bill includes substantive reforms of the electric grid that will revolutionize Texas' prevention and preparation strategies for any energy emergencies we encounter going forward"

Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick issued this statement March 29th, following the unanimous passage of Senate Bill 3, by Senator Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown:

"Following the winter storm in February, I made a personal commitment to find out what happened and fix it. Today, we've taken a significant step to addressing the problems we identified on our electric grid. SB 3 includes substantive reforms that will ensure that Texas' grid is stable for decades to come. The proposed changes in SB3 will revolutionize Texas' prevention and preparation strategies for any energy emergencies we encounter going forward. High points in SB 3 include:

"SB 3 requires the weatherization of all generation, transmission and natural gas facilities and pipelines in the Texas supply chain and includes a penalty of up to $1,000,000 per day for companies that fail to comply.

"SB 3 prohibits wholesale index plans.

"SB 3 requires mapping of the power supply chain.

"SB 3 establishes a power outage alert system to ensure Texans are properly notified of when power demand may exceed supply.

"SB 3 directs the Texas Department of Emergency Management (TDEM) to categorize winter storms the way that hurricanes are categorized.

"SB 3 requires utility providers to defer bill collections during an extreme weather emergency and to work with customers to establish payment schedules.

"SB 3 ensures a more reliable electric grid by requiring renewable energy sources to have backup plans to fill in the gap of any energy they fail to provide during critical periods.

"SB 3 formalizes the Texas Energy Reliability Council (TERC) and its duties ensuring the state's natural gas and electric reliability needs are met.

"SB 3 establishes a state energy plan advisory committee to create a state energy plan.

"SB 3 directs the PUC to create an emergency pricing mechanism.

"I congratulate Senator Schwertner and the Texas Senate on passing SB 3 unanimously today. I hope that Speaker Phelan and the Texas House will take up SB 3 quickly and send it to Governor Greg Abbott's desk."