- Energy Resilience Reference Guide, February 2023
The NARUC Energy Resilience Reference Guide is envisioned as a one-stop primer for state public utility commissions (PUCs) to assist in the development of a shared language, valuation framework, and educational tool on the topic of energy resilience. The resilience of the energy system has increasingly become part of commissions’ regulatory scope so informed decisions are made regarding how to best enhance system resiliency. Several states have already established evaluative resilience criteria (via legislative statute or regulatory directive). This guide will summarize many of the critical topic areas within energy resilience and facilitate adoption of resilience valuation frameworks by which PUCs can weigh investment decisions regarding energy system resiliency. This guide is intended to encourage state PUCs to develop their own frameworks that align with existing resources and to provide topical information related to enhancing system resilience to extreme weather, cyber-attacks, a changing energy landscape, and other threats to critical infrastructure. This guide will also assist in continual assessment of new policies and regulations designed to enhance energy system resilience.
- Guidebook: Federal Funding Opportunities for Pre- and Post-Disaster Resilience
This guidebook helps utility regulators initiate and facilitate an informed conversation about risk-reduction or mitigation projects with their stakeholders. Each section has several educational components, including program summary, eligibility requirements, important deadlines, and key takeaways that tie each program to a utility commission’s priorities. For more in-depth information about each grant, utility regulators and stakeholders can look to the additional resources included at the end of each section.
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Resilience for Regulators 2023 Webinar #1: Future Climate Modeling for Utility System Planning: Key Lessons for State Utility Regulators
The next installment in a webinar series ‘Resilience for Regulators’ that dives into various topics within the umbrella of energy resilience policy, this webinar featured speakers from ComEd and Argonne National Laboratory on incorporating climate data into utility system modeling to plan future investments. This webinar will explore how climate modeling frameworks are incorporated into utility investment decision-making within ComEd’s service territory, and how Argonne National Laboratory’s advanced climate modeling can help utilities better understand and address future threats. State utility regulators can gain a better understanding of the types of climate-driven threats to the utilities they regulate, and how investment decisions will need to adapt with the changing climate. Recording, Presentations -
Resilience for Regulators 2023 Webinar #2: Climate Mitigation Strategies for Coastal and Urban Flooding
The next installment in a webinar series ‘Resilience for Regulators’ that dives into various topics within the umbrella of energy resilience policy, this webinar featured speakers from FEMA, the Florida Public Service Commission, and the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities on available federal funding and state public utility commission strategies to mitigate impacts from flooding. Panelists will explore how investor-owned utilities and state policies consider updated climate mitigation strategies, informed by climate modeling analysis or innovative technologies, that can be beneficial to address this specific risk. This webinar will also explore different regulatory mechanisms that commissions may consider implementing as an incentive to reduce flooding risk as well as how public utility commissions are assessing climate vulnerabilities in regulated utility proposals.Recording -
Resilience for Regulators Webinar #1: Climate Resilience Frameworks to Improve Risk Management: Exploring Lessons Learned from NC, January 2022
The first in a webinar series ‘Resilience for Regulators’ that dives into various topics within the umbrella of energy resilience policy, this webinar featured speakers from North Carolina who talked about the North Carolina Climate Risk Assessment and Resilience Plan and highighted their implementation experiences. Recording, PPT -
Resilience for Regulators Webinar #2: Building Transmission Infrastructure for a Resilient Energy Future, May 2022
The second in a webinar series ‘Resilience for Regulators’ that dives into various topics within the umbrella of energy resilience policy, this webinar featured speakers from ACORE, DOE, and WIRES on the opportunity for transmission to enhance grid resilience. Recording, -
Resilience for Regulators Webinar #3: How Important is Energy Storage to Withstand Extreme Weather Events?, September 2022
The third in NARUC's webinar series ‘Resilience for Regulators’ this webinar featured speakers from American Clean Power Association, EPRI, and DNV Energy on how energy storage assets can be used to withstand extreme weather events. Recording - Regulatory Considerations for Utility Investments in Defense Energy Resilience, February 2022
Building on NARUC's recent white paper Regulatory Considerations for Utility Investments in Energy Resilience, this webinar details the concept of defense energy resilience, the Department of Energy’s defense critical electric infrastructure program (DCEI) and opportunities to enhance productive partnerships among state utility regulators, utilities and critical facilities. Speakers highlight the success of existing defense energy resilience projects in Hawaii as an exemplary model for other states to consider.
- Defense Community Priorities on Energy Resilience and Opportunities for State Regulatory Partnership, March 2022
This webinar will feature several defense community leaders describing the strategic priorities of the armed forces and DoD regarding energy security. State public utility regulators should work closely with their regulated utilities and defense community customers to identify critical assets, develop collaborative partnerships, and enhance grid resilience vital to our national defense interests.
- Advancing Electric System Resilience with Distributed Energy Resources: A Review of State Policies, April 2020
Utility regulators and other stakeholders need to improve their understanding of resilience and how distributed energy resources can facilitate recovery from disruptions and threats. This report addresses the role of state regulators in electricity system resilience, the relationship of distributed energy resources to resilience, and how states can implement policies to expand DER deployment to improve resilience.
- Advancing Electric System Resilience with Distributed Energy Resources: Key Questions and Resources, April 2020
As a companion piece to Advancing Electric System Resilience with Distributed Energy Resources: A Review of State Policies, this publication provides a foundation for state public utility commissions to frame how they review proposed utility investments that could offer resilience benefits and includes a list of relevant resources to improve regulators' ability to oversee resilience investments and obtain better outcomes for customers.
- The Value of Resilience for Distributed Energy Resources: An Overview of Current Analytical Practices, April 2019
Planning for long-duration power interruptions caused by high-impact, low-probability events requires new approaches to power system resilience above and beyond previous hardening efforts. This report examines both regulatory decision-making and non-regulatory cost-benefit analyses to determine if, and how, a value of energy resilience was calculated and applied to proposed investments. Four criteria were used to evaluate the methodologies, including the method’s ease of use, scope of outputs, geographic scalability, and power interruption duration analysis capability. Some of the valuation methodologies examined in the report may be useful in regulatory decision-making; however, none of the methods reviewed met all four criteria for regulator usefulness and usability, and no single method is capable of capturing all regulatory concerns regarding the resilience value of DERs.
- DOE-NARUC Regulating for Resilience Workshop, San Antonio, TX, November 20, 2019
As states, utilities, and other stakeholders seek to reduce the consequences of disruptions to the electric power sector from threats such as severe weather, cyber-attacks, and accidents, the need for regulators to consider how resilience can be properly internalized is coming into sharp focus. States, utilities, municipalities, and customers are increasingly taking steps to improve our communities’ resilience yet are doing so without the benefit of an established, clear and comprehensive set of planning considerations for grid resilience. Objectives for this workshop include: (1) to present and discuss work to date on overcoming critical barriers to development of a structured resilience framework; and (2) to explore commission experiences and needs related to important resilience topics.Summary forthcoming - PJM-NARUC Joint Stakeholder Workshop: How Can Distributed Energy Resources Advance System Resilience? Orlando, FL, November 14, 2018
NARUC is grateful for funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Solar Energy Technologies Office and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) through the Solar Energy Innovation Network (SEIN), DOE Office of Electricity, DOE Office of Grid Deployment (GDO), and DOE Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Resilience (CESER) which have enabled the resources and activities described on this webpage.
NARUC staff experts who support these activities include: