The New York Public Service Commission is due to receive comments on its whitepaper regarding standby and buyback service rates in its Value of Distributed Energy Resources proceeding. The commission held a conference in February to discuss the whitepaper’s findings and recommendations regarding utility filings on these rates and establishing optional demand-based rates. Specifically, the paper considers the application of the “Allocated Cost of Service methodology,” or ACOS, as well as the appropriateness of imposing some of the resulting changes to stand-alone energy storage systems. Further, the paper identifies a proposed ACOS method for investor-owned electric utilities to apply in developing such rates and recommends that stand-alone energy storage systems be exempted from contract demand charges for injections under buyback service. READ MORE

The Maryland Public Service Commission will discuss Potomac Electric Power Company’s application for adjustments of retail rates and charges applicable to electric services. The Exelon subsidiary filed a three-year rate plan, starting from April 2021, seeking an increase in base revenues of $44 million in the first year, $78 million in the second year, and $110 million in the third year, and a return on equity of 10.2 percent. In light of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company proposes to accelerate the provision of certain tax benefits to customers, in order to totally offset the overall increase in the first and second years, and reduce the increase in the third year to $56 million. 9655

Electric Reliability Council of Texas Inc., which manages the electric grid for about 90 percent of Texas, will hold urgent teleconference meetings of the Finance and Audit Committee and the Human Resources and Governance Committee on April 12, and its Board of Directors on April 13. On April 6, the grid operator submitted a preliminary report to the Texas Public Utilities Commission on the causes of generator outages and derates during the mid-February cold weather event that caused widespread power outages across the state. The voting items for the meetings will be limited to time-sensitive matters that cannot wait until their regularly-scheduled meetings, including the grid operator’s decision on exiting energy emergency alert level 3 and real-time market price corrections during February. 51878

The California Public Utilities Commission will host a remote access meeting of the Wildfire Safety Advisory Board to discuss draft recommendations on the 2021 wildfire mitigation plan updates for large investor-owned utilities. The board was established in 2019 to review mitigation plans to ensure that electric utilities are taking effective actions to reduce wildfire risk. The recommendations cover a range of topics including risk assessment, vegetation management, grid hardening, public safety power shutoffs, and emergency planning and communication. The board said it recognizes the utilities’ extensive effort to develop their mitigation plan filings and acknowledged that the information has improved since the 2020 filings.

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission will consider utilities’ transition plans to resume normal operations after the duration of the COVID-19 emergency. The discussion will focus on what action the commission should take regarding the plans and how customers will be informed on the procedure for the transition. The commission opened a docket in March 2020 to investigate the customer impacts and utility response to the pandemic. An order issued in August 2020 established monthly reporting for rate-regulated utilities, extended consumer protections for the duration of the emergency, and required transition plans before utilities resume disconnections. The commission received comments on the items that the transition plans should contain, following criteria that were proposed by a coalition of consumer advocates in February. CI-20-375