The New York Public Service Commission is due to receive comments on Champlain Hudson Power Express Inc.’s proposed amendment to its high voltage, direct transmission line extending approximately 330 miles from the New York-Canada border to a converter station in Queens. The amendment would allow the addition of a new interconnection point in the Capital Region to enable power transmission from upstate renewable generation facilities to New York City. The commission granted a certificate of environmental compatibility and public need authorizing the construction, operation, and maintenance of the project in April 2013. Over the last two years, the commission has granted amendments to the certificate including route modifications, and revisions to increase the project capacity from 1,000 megawatts to 1,250 megawatts, and enlarge the footprint of the converter station.

The North Carolina Utilities Commission is due to receive initial filings from utilities to inform its biennial determination of avoided cost rates for purchases from small renewable power producers under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978, or PURPA. The law entitles independent generators that meet certain criteria based on size and technology to sell their output to regulated utilities at the avoided cost – the cost the utility would incur to generate the power or purchase supplies from another source. The utilities – Duke Energy Carolinas LLC, Duke Energy Progress LLC, Dominion Energy North Carolina, Western Carolina University, and New River Light and Power Company – are required to provide set of proposed rates with calculations for deriving them and proposed standard forms of contract, including any differences from currently approved contracts and the reasons for such differences. E-100 Sub 175

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection will conduct a public hearing on a proposal to adopt California’s Advanced Clean Trucks Rule to increase the sales of zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty vehicles and reduce emissions from on-road mobile sources. The proposed regulation would set annually increasing sales requirements for manufacturers, with percentage targets varying by model year, vehicle class, and vehicle type from 2024 through 2035. In addition to the sales requirement, California’s regulation contains reporting requirements for large employers and fleet owners to help identify future strategies which ensure that available zero-emission trucks are purchased and placed in service to meet their needs.

The Michigan Public Service Commission is due to receive comments on proposed actions to rescind current net metering standards and issue rules governing electric interconnection and distributed generation. The legacy net metering rules, adopted in 2009, focused primarily on small electric generators under five categories. The commission noted that interconnection procedures were adopted in December 2012 for smaller projects under two categories, while it has not yet addressed rules governing the other three categories. The agency proposed the actions to address the lack of interconnection procedures for larger projects in light of developments over the last decade including fast growth of renewable energy and changes to energy laws. Legislation enacted in 2016 authorized the promulgation of rules governing distributed generation while the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Order 841 addresses the participation of energy storage in wholesale markets. U-20890

The Minnesota Environmental Quality Board will hold a public meeting to discuss Northern Wind Energy Redevelopment LLC’s proposal to allow decommissioning of 65 turbines from the Chanarambie Wind Farm and Viking Wind Farm, both located in Murray County, and replace them with up to 45 new turbines, increasing the combined nameplate capacity from about 97 megawatts to 120 megawatts. In 2015, ALLETE Clean Energy, parent company of Northern Wind, purchased both the wind generation facilities, which came online in 2003. The combined, repowered project, known as the Northern Wind Project, would increase efficiency and reliability, and extend the life of the facility. WS-20-860

The California Public Utilities Commission will consider two proposals that would allow for increasing the amount of natural gas to be stored at Southern California Gas Company’s Aliso Canyon storage facility to ensure adequate supplies for the upcoming winter season in the Los Angeles Basin. The first proposal would authorize a capacity of up to 68.6 billion cubic feet, the maximum amount allowable for safe operations. The alternate proposal would allow 41 billion cubic feet to meet the region’s minimum reliability needs. The proposals are intended to provide an interim solution to address winter reliability needs, while the commission continues to determine the investments required to minimize or eliminate the use of the facility, where a disastrous blowout in October 2015 led to a four-month gas leak. I1702002

The Michigan Public Service Commission will hold a technical conference on emergency preparedness, distribution reliability, and storm response following the repeated major power outages during extreme storms this summer. The commission intends to gather updated information to determine the next steps in addressing the outages and to explore the need for improvements with a focus on efforts that address environmental justice, equity, and cost to customers. The conference will feature panels and presentations by commission staff and stakeholders including representatives of consumer groups, environmental interests, utilities, small businesses, emergency responders, and affected communities.