press releases
For Immediate Release: June 1, 2016
Contact: Regina L. Davis, 202-898-9382, rdavis@naruc.org
WASHINGTON—Today, Commissioner David R. Clark of Utah and Commissioner Lorraine H. Akiba of the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission made presentations at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Reliability Technical Conference. The purpose of the conference was to discuss policy issues related to the reliability of the Bulk-Power System.
Commissioner Clark, who presented on behalf of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, focused his comments on regulators’ desire for more explicit consideration of the costs utilities incur to comply with the North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s reliability standards and the importance of continued emphasis on understanding the changing electric generation mix and the concomitant impacts on reliability.
Commissioner Akiba provided a state perspective and highlighted emerging issues in Hawaii, including distributed solar PV capacity growth, renewable energy trends, and grid stability, followed by key findings and observations.
“The resource mix in this country is changing as a result of market forces and environmental regulation,” said NARUC President Travis Kavulla. “Meanwhile, the grid—the most complicated machine man has ever built—is only becoming more complicated because of an increasing reliance on natural gas, weather-dependent generation, customer-side resources, and increasingly sophisticated operation and information technologies.
“We need to prepare for the reliability implications of those changes. Making sure we do it right means insisting on risk-based standards and meaningful cost-benefit analysis, even while having an awareness of the new types of N-1 events that pose significant risks.
“I applaud FERC, NERC, and the regional reliability entities for their work on this subject, and commend their attention to what our state commissioners had to say in today’s technical conference on the subject.”
Presentations from Commissioners Clark and Akiba are located at http://1.usa.gov/1TQiX74 and http://1.usa.gov/1Y2Zy2u, respectively.
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NARUC is a non-profit organization founded in 1889 whose members include the governmental agencies that are engaged in the regulation of utilities and carriers in the fifty States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. NARUC's member agencies regulate telecommunications, energy, and water utilities. NARUC represents the interests of State public utility commissions before the three branches of the Federal government.
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