• State Programs
  • Plans/Manuals
  • Administration
  • LIHEAP components
  • Client eligibility
  • Benefits
  • Self-sufficiency
  • Leveraging
• Tribal LIHEAP
  • Manual
  • Funding
  • Agreements
  • Applications
  • Benefits
  • Leveraging
  • REACH
• LIHEAP Funding
• Public Benefits
  • State summaries
  • Studies/reports
• Disconnect Policies
• State Supplements
  • Recent year
  • Previous years
• LIHEAP Directors
  • States/websites
  • Tribal
  • Insular areas
• Publications
  • REACH
  • Leveraging
  • Benefits/eligibility
  • Other LIHEAP
• Related Links
  • Community action
    • State/regional
    • Local
  • Low income/energy
  • Federal government

Texas PBF/ USF History, Legislation, Implementation

Legislation Cite and Date
SB 7 (5/99)

Low-Income Provisions
SB 7 and HB 1902 authorized and implemented a systems benefits charge fee (SBCF) to fund low-income rate assistance and weatherization, and consumer education programs with special outreach for low-income. 

Low-Income Rate Assistance
Effective January 2002, the SBC-funded LITE-UP Texas discount program began with a low-income electric bill discount of 10%; in May 2002 the Public Utility Commission (PUC) increased the discount to 17%. Effective August 2003, the PUC rolled the discount back to 10% due to a state budget deficit. In the spring of 2003, $183 million in SBC funds was diverted to the state general fund and in 2005, the legislature shifted all SBC funds to the state general fund. Nearly 400,000 low-income customers were informed that they would lose their discounts as of August 31, 2005.

In June 2007, the Texas legislature appropriated $30 million from the SBC for a summer discount (July through October) of about 12 percent, and $170 million for a summer discount for the next two years.  

Low-Income Conservation
Legislation also continued funding for weatherization programs that had previously been funded through utility rates; however, effective August 2003, low-income weatherization funds were zeroed out by the legislature because of the state budget deficit. The 2005 legislature restored funding for weatherization by passing SB 712. As of August 2006, utilities have committed to spending $5 million annually on weatherization services that will be coordinated with the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA), the federal weatherization grantee, under a program referred to as the targeted low-income weatherization program.

Annual Funding (2008)
Rate Assistance: $30 million
Conservation: $825,000

Funding Mechanism
Nonbypassable fee of up to 65 cents per megawatt hour, all electric customers contribute.

Administration
Conservation: Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, TDHCA targeted low-income weatherization program; utilities, Hard-to-Reach Programs

Pre-Restructuring Funding
Rate Assistance: None
Conservation: $5 million

Page Last Updated: January 27, 2010