2025 Texas Statutes
Utilities Code
Title 2 - Public Utility Regulatory Act
Subtitle B - Electric Utilities
Chapter 38 - Regulation of Electric Services
Subchapter E. Infrastructure Improvement and Maintenance
Section 38.103. Distribution Pole Plan
Sec. 38.103. DISTRIBUTION POLE PLAN. (a) Each electric cooperative, electric utility, and municipally owned utility that distributes electric energy to the public shall submit to the commission a plan for the management and inspection of distribution poles the cooperative or utility owns in the cooperative's or utility's distribution system.
(b) Each plan submitted under Subsection (a) must include:
(1) a statement of the plan's scope and objectives for ensuring public safety through the effective management, inspection, maintenance, and repair of distribution poles;
(2) the roles and responsibilities of individuals responsible for overseeing and executing the plan;
(3) processes for training and certifying personnel, including third-party vendors, who inspect distribution poles;
(4) an estimated timeline for completing inspections and remedial action required for any pole identified as unreliable, unsafe, or needing repair;
(5) processes for documenting and responding to a report or complaint made by a landowner regarding the condition or repair of a distribution pole;
(6) for a plan submitted by an electric utility, the estimated cost of implementing the plan; and
(7) a description of the cooperative's or utility's methods to monitor compliance with the plan.
(c) Not later than May 1 of each year, an entity to which this section applies shall submit an update to the commission detailing the entity's compliance with the plan's objectives, the costs of implementing the plan to date, and the results of the entity's inspection of distribution poles, including the number of poles inspected and any remediation or replacement action taken. An electric utility may submit the update in a report required under Section 38.101.
(d) The commission shall review each plan and update submitted under this section to determine whether the entity that submitted the plan or update is in compliance with the plan's objectives described by Subsection (b)(1) and notify the entity whether or not the entity is in compliance with those objectives.
(e) The commission may accept in place of the information required under this section any information required under other law that is substantially similar to the information required under this section.
Added by Acts 2025, 89th Leg., R.S., Ch. 919 (H.B. 144), Sec. 2, eff. June 20, 2025.
