The South Carolina Public Service Commission will conduct a hearing regarding regulatory challenges and opportunities associated with the electrification of the transportation sector. Topics of discussion will include creating rates to encourage third-party investment in electric vehicle charging, utility make-ready or incentive programs, and utilizing capacity maps for maximum benefits. The commission initiated a proceeding in June to examine regulatory policies to support efficient and cost-effective transition to electric transportation, data management and coordination among energy system participants, and other critical issues related to transportation electrification, such as service reliability, privacy, affordability, and security. READ MORE

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority will hold a webinar to discuss the New York School Bus Incentive Program, or NYSBIP, a point-of-sale incentive program intended to accelerate the deployment of zero-emission school buses in the medium- and heavy-duty vehicle weight classes in the state. NYSERDA has released program rules to guide the allotment of $500 million for zero-emission school buses and infrastructure from the 2022 Clean Air, Clean Water and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act. Applications will be accepted from Nov. 29 for an initial $100 million available to fund the acquisition of new buses and charging infrastructure costs. The state requires all school bus purchases to be zero emissions by 2027, with the entire fleet transitioned to zero emissions by 2035. The webinar will include an overview of the NYSBIP goals, guidelines, process, and timelines.

The New York Public Service Commission is due to receive comments on a revised long-term gas system plan filed by Consolidated Edison Company of New York Inc. and Orange and Rockland Utilities Inc. The companies filed a revised plan following stakeholder meetings, information requests, and written comments on the initial plan submitted in May. A 2022 order established a long-term gas system planning process for local gas distribution companies. The commission seeks comments on the substance of the revised long-term plan filed in September. 23-G-0147

The California Energy Commission will discuss capacity expansion modeling results from a long-duration energy storage, or LDES, project awarded to the Regents of the University of California, Merced under its Electric Program Investment Charge, or EPIC, program. The project team will present their analysis including a summary of recent advancements in available LDES technologies, a presentation of how cost targets for LDES depend on efficiency, and storage durations that would be most beneficial for the state. Previous studies have indicated that greenhouse gas reductions of 90 percent or more in the electricity sector are achievable with current technology, which includes a mix of solar photovoltaics, wind resources – both in-state and out-of-state – and existing energy storage technologies such as lithium-ion batteries and pumped hydro or compressed air. However, reaching a 100 percent emissions reduction goal may require newer technologies, including different types of long-duration energy storage. Legislation enacted in 2018 requires all retail electricity in the state to be supplied by zero-carbon resources by 2045.

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission will discuss whether it should extend a residential adder for the 2023 value-of-solar, or VOS, rate of Xcel Energy Inc.’s Community Solar Garden program. VOS is a methodology used to compensate customers who export solar electricity generation for the value provided to the utility, its customers, and society. The methodology, which has been used as the basis for the bill credit in the program since 2017, is revised annually to reflect updated input data. The residential adder is available to residential customers receiving the 2019, 2020, 2021, or 2022 VOS rate.

The California Independent System Operator Corp. is due to receive comments on a straw proposal for the 2023 Interconnection Process Enhancements Track 2 initiative. The proposal aims to address the unprecedented interconnection request volumes that are unsustainable in current processes and intends to enable rapid deployment of new generation, in order to increase reliability, affordability, and decarbonization. The grid operator aims to re-imagine the grid interconnection, prioritization, and coordination processes to ensure that resource procurement and queuing are effectively oriented toward planned and existing transmission and interconnection capacity and align with transmission development required for longer-term resource development. Large quantities of new clean resources required to meet the state’s decarbonization goals have led to unprecedented numbers of interconnection requests from resource developers.

The Idaho Public Utilities Commission is due to receive comments on Idaho Power Company’s application for authority to implement changes to the compensation structure applicable to customer on-site generation and to establish an export credit rate. In May, the company requested changes to its on-site and self-generation tariffs, including implementing real-time net billing with an avoided cost-based financial credit rate for exported energy, establishing a methodology for annual updates to the export credit rate, and modifying project eligibility caps for commercial, industrial, and irrigation customers. In December 2022, the commission issued an order acknowledging the company’s Value of Distributed Energy Resources study and directed the company to file a new case requesting to implement changes to the structure and design of its net metering program. The study examined the costs, benefits and compensation of excess energy associated with customer-sited generation. IPC-E-23-14