Texas Political Spotlight
“Glen Lyons, a retired ExxonMobil electricity-policy executive who said he served three years on the ERCOT board, proposed an alternative he called “Bring Your Own Power” (BYOP), under which new large loads would build or contract for their own generation outside ERCOT's transmission system rather than drawing on it, avoiding eminent domain entirely; he said New Hampshire, Ohio and Utah have passed versions of the idea….
Why it matters: This was the committee's fourth interim hearing on electricity affordability, and it is the first to put named landowners' specific cost estimates for a PUC-approved 765kV line on the record alongside the commission's own rate-setting standard. No bill or rule changed this week; the committee's eventual interim report, not this hearing, will determine whether any of the proposals discussed — reconducting, a minimum demand charge, or Bring Your Own Power — become 2027 legislation. The PUC's own rate-setting standard, laid out earlier in the same hearing, is the yardstick any such legislation would have to satisfy before a utility could recover the cost of a new line from ratepayers.”
