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 Provisions in Senate Bill 7, enacted in the 1999 Texas Legislature, mandated that at least 10% of an investor-owned utility's (IOU) annual growth in electricity demand be met through energy efficiency programs each year. Due to the success of the programs, goals for energy efficiency were increased through House Bill 3693 during the 2007 legislative session. The latest energy efficiency legislation, Senate Bill 1125, was passed in 2011. This bill will stabilize energy efficiency goals in future years by changing the goal metric from a percentage of load growth to a percentage of total peak load.
Currently, the IOUs are required to meet 20% of their growth in demand through energy efficiency programs.
PUCT Subst. Rule 25.181
The Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) Substantive Rule 25.181 (Energy Efficiency Rule) establishes procedures for meeting this legislative mandate. On July 30, 2010 the PUC approved changes to this rule, increasing the energy efficiency goal to 30% of demand growth by the end of 2013.
Effective December 1, 2010, the latest Energy Efficiency Rule mandates that IOUs meet the following demand reduction goals by the end of the specified year:
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2011: 20% of the electric utility's annual growth in demand
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2012: 25% of the electric utility's annual growth in demand
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2013: 30% of the electric utility's annual growth in demand
Utilities are required to administer incentive programs to meet the mandated energy efficiency goals. Programs are implemented through retail electric providers and energy efficiency service providers and are designed to reduce system peak demand, energy consumption, or energy costs. Utilities must achieve their energy efficiency goals through either standard offer programs (SOPs) or market transformation programs (MTPs). Programs are made available to all customers, in all customer classes. This gives each customer a choice of a variety of energy efficiency alternatives.
For more information on how the energy efficiency programs work, please see our Program Basics page.
Amended Energy Efficiency Rule, Effective December 1, 2010:
Rule with Preamble:
Senate Bill 1125
Senate Bill 1125 was passed during the 81st Legislature (2011). Starting in 2013, this bill requires the investor-owned utilities to achieve demand reductions equivalent to 30% of the electric utility's annual growth in demand.
However, it a utility's demand reduction goal (calculated at 30% of growth in demand) is equal to or greater than 0.4% of the utility's peak demand, the goal metric switches from 30% of load growth to 0.4% of summer weather-adjusted peak demand.
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