The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission on Feb. 20 adopted requirements that each of the state’s regulated utilities must adhere to in filing integrated distribution plans. Utilities must submit their filings biennially starting on Nov. 1, providing a five-year action plan, as well as a ten-year plan for distribution system development. Each utility is required to provide system and financial data and an evaluation of varying levels of distributed resource deployment.

The commission said that the requirements will ensure optimized utilization of grid assets, enable greater customer engagement, facilitate adoption of new distributed technologies, and provide the information needed for a comprehensive analysis of ratepayer cost and value.

The requirements will help the commission and stakeholders in evaluating potential investments to modernize the grid. Requiring utilities to account for various levels of distributed resource deployment will help them prepare to accommodate new distribution-level resources, the agency said.