SB231

The introduced bill would have measured mobility by whether moving a unit required certain oversized or overweight transport permits. The Senate committee substitute instead used the less-than-12-hour movement standard. It changed proposed approval of each lease into authorization of fleet capacity and functions, added authority to time-limit approval, and added the emergency lease-duration condition and the prospective equipment transition. The Senate committee, Senate-passed, House committee and enrolled versions have the same operative provisions; the amendment index lists no floor amendments. All versions.

A proposed retroactive remedy was removed. The introduced version would have required a prompt rate review for certain utilities that failed to deploy leased facilities during a federally declared major disaster in 2024, with specified rate-of-return revision or customer refunds after adverse findings. That special proceeding is absent from the final law. Its removal does not repeal existing review of reasonable and necessary costs.

Some oversight already existed by rule. The PUC’s December 2024 adoption order, printed pages 100–119, already contained fleet authorization, emergency leasing, competitive bidding and cost-review rules in 16 TAC 25.56. The filing record identifies the January 8, 2025 implementation timing. SB231 puts revised requirements in statute, adds explicit equipment limits, and permits a non-emergency alternative to prior authorization through an alteration clause; it did not invent all generator oversight.

Later implementation is separate from the 2025 enactment. The PUC’s February 6, 2026 adoption order implements SB231 with detailed lease provisions, a public notice within 14 days for the non-emergency alteration-clause route, and a contested-case process to alter or terminate such a lease in the public interest. Its emergency route expressly operates without that alteration-clause route’s requirements, while retaining emergency conditions and cost review. The PUC’s February 18 implementation notice states that the amendments take effect March 1, 2026 and identifies Project 59389 for public notices. Disclosures for leases entered June 20, 2025 through February 28, 2026 were invited voluntarily; the later filing requirement should not be presented as retroactive.

Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.

Mobile, smaller units may be easier to deploy where restoration is needed. Capacity planning, competitive procurement and limits on emergency leases may improve accountability. Those are intended benefits, not verified reductions in outage duration or electricity bills. The PUC’s 2026 order expressly declined to add a mandatory dispatch-and-connection deadline; the statutory three-hour clock concerns generation capability after connection, not delivery to every neighborhood.

Utilities and suppliers must meet equipment and lease requirements, and regulators must review authorizations and costs. Customers can still bear reasonable and necessary leasing and operating costs through regulated rates: SB231 does not repeal the existing cost-recovery framework. The 2026 rule retains reconciliation of temporary charges and refund or offset treatment for costs found unreasonable, unnecessary or imprudent. Neither prior authorization nor an alteration clause guarantees recovery of every dollar.

The May 8, 2025 fiscal note, for text unchanged in the final act, anticipates no significant state or local governmental fiscal impact and assumes costs can be absorbed using existing resources. It does not quantify ratepayer savings, supplier costs or reliability gains. The final act contains no new appropriation and no automatic refund to a particular customer.