Texas let you choose your power, but not community solar

I. How Texas opened the market

Say you rent an apartment in Montrose, or you own a small house in Sharpstown with a live oak that shades the roof most of the afternoon. You would like your power to come from the sun, and you have read that in other states a person can subscribe to a nearby solar farm and watch a credit show up on the monthly bill. So you open Power to Choose, the state's official electricity shopping site, and go looking for that plan. It is not there.

Houston sits inside the competitive retail market, where you pick among dozens of retail electric providers (the companies that sell you the power and send the bill) while CenterPoint Energy runs the poles and wires no matter who you buy from. That choice arrived early here, after the Legislature passed Senate Bill 7 in 1999 and competition opened across most of the ERCOT grid (the operator that runs the flow of electricity for most of Texas) in 2002. What did not arrive, and still has not in any full form, is community solar: a shared array that many households subscribe to, each taking a slice of the output as a credit.

II. Why shared solar stalls here

Retail choice and shared solar are two different machines, and Texas built one and skipped the other. The mechanism other states lean on is often called virtual net metering, where the utility credits your bill for your subscribed share of a remote array. Texas has no statewide net metering rule at all, even for panels on your own roof. Whether you get paid for power you send back to the grid depends entirely on the retail provider and the plan you signed.

For a shared project the problem compounds. Someone has to measure each subscriber's slice, apply it against a bill issued by whichever of dozens of providers that subscriber happens to use, and keep it straight when people switch providers, which they do often. Municipal utilities like Austin Energy and CPS Energy in San Antonio can run community solar because they own generation, wires, and billing together. Houston's market is split among many hands on purpose, and that same split is what makes shared credits hard to wire up.

III. The bills that did not pass

Supporters have brought shared solar proposals to the Texas Legislature in recent sessions. The pattern has held: a bill is filed to set up a statewide program, it draws backing from solar companies and some consumer groups, and it does not clear both chambers before the session ends. This desk is not aware of a general community solar program becoming law for the competitive market as of the most recent session, so treat any claim that one exists with care.

The players line up about as you would expect. Solar developers and clean energy advocates want an enabling law with clear credit rules. Some incumbent providers and generators are wary of a mandate that reshapes billing. The Public Utility Commission of Texas implements what the Legislature passes, so without a statute it has no shared solar program to run. That is the honest state of play, and it can change in a single session.

IV. What Houston customers do instead

The most common path is a retail plan that buys renewable energy on your behalf. On Power to Choose you can filter for plans labeled 100 percent renewable, where the provider matches your usage with wind or solar credits. It is not the same as owning a slice of a local array, and the fine print varies, so read the Electricity Facts Label (the standardized one page summary every plan must publish) before you sign anything.

If you own your roof and it catches good sun, on-site panels remain the direct route, paired with a provider that offers a solar buyback plan (one that credits the power your panels export). Renters and shaded roofs have fewer options today. Some co-ops and municipal utilities elsewhere in Texas run subscription solar, but those serve their own territories, not Houston's competitive market, so they are worth knowing about mainly if you move.

V. Worth watching this month

1. Watch the Public Utility Commission's open meeting agendas at puc.texas.gov for any rulemaking that touches distributed or shared solar, though most items posted there are routine.

2. Check whether legislative committees schedule interim hearings on distributed generation ahead of the next regular session, which would be an early sign a shared solar bill may return.

3. Compare renewable plans on Power to Choose this fall, when many contract terms turn over and advertised prices often shift.

4. If you have panels or plan to add them, watch your provider's solar buyback terms at renewal, since those change plan by plan rather than by any statewide rule.

5. Keep an eye on ERCOT's interconnection queue reports at ercot.com for large new solar projects near Houston, which shape wholesale supply even though you cannot subscribe to them directly.

Sources of record

1. Public Utility Commission of Texas, The state agency (.gov) that oversees the competitive electricity market; look here for rulemakings and open meeting agendas., www.puc.texas.gov
2. Power to Choose (PUCT), The commission's official plan shopping site; filter for renewable plans and read each plan's Electricity Facts Label., www.powertochoose.org
3. ERCOT, The grid operator for most of Texas; source for the interconnection queue and grid supply data., www.ercot.com
4. CenterPoint Energy, Houston's transmission and distribution utility, the wires company that delivers power no matter which provider you pick., www.centerpointenergy.com
5. Austin Energy Community Solar, A municipal utility that runs a community solar subscription program, an example of what the competitive market around Houston lacks., austinenergy.com
6. CPS Energy, San Antonio's municipal utility, which has offered community and shared solar options within its own territory., www.cpsenergy.com