1. (a) This section only applies in a county with a population of more than 1.2 million in which a national wildlife refuge is wholly or partly located.

2. (b) Notwithstanding any other provision of this title, and for the purposes of reducing environmental emissions, putting to a beneficial purpose landfill gas as an electric generation fuel that would otherwise be flared, enabling the operation of electric generation to a greater degree, and enhancing the reliability and resilience of electric service in this state, a person who is not an electric utility and who owns and operates equipment or facilities to produce, generate, transmit, distribute, store, sell, or furnish electricity produced by the use of landfill methane gas may:

   1. (1) use the equipment or facilities to provide electricity and electric service to the person and to the person's affiliates without being considered to be an electric utility, a public utility, a retail electric provider, a power marketer, or a person providing aggregation;
   2. (2) interconnect the equipment or facilities in a timely manner and on reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms and conditions with any electric utility, municipally owned utility, or electric cooperative that has a retail service area for any portion of the equipment or facilities; and
   3. (3) receive backup, supplemental, or other electric service for any of the person's or the person's affiliates' facilities that consume electricity from any electric utility, municipally owned utility, or electric cooperative that has a retail service area for any portion of the person's facilities or equipment that are interconnected regardless of whether those facilities are in the same retail service area as the location of the interconnection point.

3. (c) Backup, supplemental, or other electric service provided under this section through an interconnection for a person's electricity-consuming facilities that are connected to the person's interconnected equipment or facilities does not constitute a service area encroachment or other violation of law by the electric utility, municipally owned utility, or electric cooperative supplying the backup, supplemental, or other electric service.

   Redesignated from Utilities Code, Section 35.037 by Acts 2023, 88th Leg., R.S., Ch. 768 (H.B. 4595), Sec. 24.001(61), eff. September 1, 2023.

Added by Acts 2021, 87th Leg., R.S., Ch. 426 (S.B. 3), Sec. 15, eff. June 8, 2021.

Acts 2023, 88th Leg., R.S., Ch. 644 (H.B. 4559), Sec. 270, eff. September 1, 2023.