Rate Design, Exelon Chief Q&A and Resolutions Highlight NARUC's Summer Committee Meetings

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For Immediate Release: August 1, 2016
Contact: Regina L. Davis, 202-898-9382, rdavis@naruc.org

WASHINGTON—The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners concluded a successful series of summer meetings in Nashville, Tennessee, and adopted several important resolutions across utility sectors.

NARUC’s meetings, held July 24-27, were well attended—with nearly 1,100 attendees. The event featured a range of sessions focused on matters relevant to state utility commissioners: electricity, telecommunications, gas, water and transportation issues.

A town hall on the much-anticipated draft Manual on Distributed Energy Resources (DER) Compensation was convened on Saturday, July 23, with more than 100 attendees. The town hall featured discussions of the draft manual and solicited questions and comments from the audience. The draft manual is available on NARUC’s website at http://bit.ly/2ahCpaB and comments will be accepted until September 2, 2016, at responses@naruc.org.

Monday’s general session kicked off the formal start of the meetings with a Q&A with Exelon’s President and CEO Chris Crane, moderated by NARUC President Travis Kavulla of Montana. Other general sessions featured issues of big data—cloud-based solutions and applications in the utility industry; ensuring a workforce for utility construction projects; and the role of states versus markets in procuring generation.

At the conclusion of the meetings, on July 27, the Board of Directors adopted the following resolutions:

• WA-1 Resolution Urging the United States Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers to Withdraw the Final Rule Relating to the Definition of “Waters of the United States” Under the Clean Water Act or Propose a Supplemental Rule Subject to Additional Public Comment and Cost-Benefit Analysis
  Requests that the United States Congress take actions necessary to prevent implementation of the final rule, and urges the Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers to withdraw the final rule or propose a supplemental rule, subject to another round of public comments and additional cost-benefit analysis studies.

• EL-1 Resolution Opposing the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Plan to Allow for Private Lawsuits
  Urges that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission not take any actions that would permit Section 22 claims in the RTO and ISO markets.

• EL-2 Resolution Supporting Development of FERC Annual Reporting Requirement for 20 Largest Transmission Facilities of Public Utilities and Other Transmission Developers
  Urges the FERC to exercise its authority under Title 16 USC § 825c to institute a proceeding to investigate whether to establish a requirement for public utilities and other developers of transmission facilities to file annual reports providing investment and project cost information of their 20 largest transmission facilities.

• GS-1 Resolution on Pipeline Safety
  Encourages regulators and industry to consider sensible programs aimed at targeting the riskiest transmission pipelines, along with factoring in the implementation challenges that may also reflect the financial realities of the particular utility in question.

• UM-1 Resolution Regarding Permanent Placement of the Utility Marketplace Access Chair on the National Utilities Diversity Council Board
  Recognizes the value of the partnership it has enjoyed with the National Utilities Diversity Council, supports the permanent placement of the chairperson of the Subcommittee on Utility Marketplace Access on the National Utilities Diversity Council board.

Resolutions are available online at http://bit.ly/2ahIHJY; honorary resolutions can be viewed at http://bit.ly/2aCuExS.

NARUC will host its annual meeting November 13-16, 2016, in La Quinta, California.