The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection will host a virtual meeting with the Air Quality Technical Advisory Committee to discuss the draft final-form rulemaking detailing Pennsylvania’s carbon-dioxide budget trading program. The rule would allow the state to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI, a 11-state compact that established the nation’s first mandatory emissions trading program to limit power sector emissions. If the state joins RGGI by the start of 2022, the rule would set an allowance base budget of 78 million tons per year, with the cap annually declining by 2.49 million tons through 2030 to reach 58 million tons. The proposal will be discussed by the Small Business Compliance Advisory Committee and Citizens Advisory Council on May 19. The Environmental Justice Advisory Board will examine the draft on May 20. READ MORE

PJM Interconnection LLC is set to commence its long-delayed capacity auction for the 2022-2023 delivery year. The auction, originally scheduled to be held in May 2019, was postponed pending the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s approval of a new capacity market minimum offer price rule, or MOPR. In 2018, the commission determined that PJM’s capacity market rules failed to mitigate the price distortion caused by out-of-market payments, and subsequently directed the grid operator to extend the MOPR to all new state-subsidized resources. The auction will close May 25 and PJM will post the auction results on June 2. PJM plans to hold subsequent auctions on an accelerated basis through 2024, so that the regular annual schedule can resume.

The Maryland Public Service Commission will hold a meeting of the Future Programming Working Group to discuss a new goal structure for EmPOWER Maryland, the state’s energy efficiency program. The commission established the workgroup in December 2020 to ensure that upcoming program cycles are well-informed and fully developed. The current goal structure for EmPOWER is mandated by legislation through the end of the 2021-2023 program cycle and the commission is required to provide the General Assembly with recommendations on future goals and cost-effectiveness tests by July 1, 2022. The December order authorized the transition to the next three-year program cycle and approved various proposals by the program administrators to continue operating the core energy efficiency programs in 2021-2023. 9648

The Utah Public Service Commission will discuss Dominion Energy Inc.’s 2020 integrated resource plan for the plan year of June 1, 2021 through May 31, 2022. The conference will discuss project details under the resource plan, as well as updates on long-term planning, a hydrogen pilot, and the future sustainable transportation and energy plan. The company is preparing to file the plan in early June 2021, with a presentation scheduled for June 22. 21-057-01

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission will consider Xcel Energy Inc.’s proposed general time-of-use rates, a three-period tariff designed to deliver price signals that encourage load shifting to avoid peak periods. Xcel also requested approval to make the tariff available early for a limited number of electric vehicle charging applications. The company proposed a rate structure and intends to submit an implementation plan at a later time. The Minnesota Department of Commerce recommended that the commission defer the matter until 2024 when Xcel is able to complete the installation of advanced meters to calibrate rates. The department also noted the uncertainty over the hourly system costs and system demand characteristics by those years and valid concerns by Xcel’s largest customers over implementing a significant rate change without considering the full context on revenue requirements, other rates, and class cost of service issues. M-20-86