Los Angeles: State utility regulators in the United States announced the adoption July 20 of numerous resolutions across all utility sectors, including new policies on smart-grid deployment, supplier diversity, carbon-capture, flexibility on environmental rules, call-termination, and a number of other issues.
The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners’ (NARUC) Board of Directors approved the resolutions at the conclusion of the Association’s Summer Committee Meetings in Los Angeles.
Among the resolutions are:
The Resolution Supporting Fair Expenditure of Energy Efficiency Funds in All Customer Sectors urges utilities/other efficiency program administrators to (i) spend a fair share of energy efficiency funds in each customer sector, (ii) improve awareness of the impact of energy efficiency, and (iii) offer “one-stop shopping” to owners to apply for utility-funded services. It also urges State PSCs to investigate whether programs are equitably serving all customer sectors.
The Resolution on Electromagnetic Pulses (i) recommends States open a dialogue about measures utilities currently use to address the threat of EMP, (ii) recognizes the need for prudent investment in infrastructure to reduce exposure to space weather/EMP threats, and (iii) directs NARUC to advocate for sensible federal investment into research to ascertain the extent to which infrastructure affecting bulk power and the transmission of electric power in interstate commerce should be hardened against the impacts of severe space weather and EMP, including an estimate of the costs and benefits of such investments. (“Space weather” refers to the occasional floods of charged particles from solar outbursts that can generate disruptive electrical currents on the grid.)
The Resolution on Carbon Capture and Enhanced Oil Recovery supports (i) State policies to encourage the use of carbon dioxide from power plants in petroleum recovery operations, and (ii) urges the federal government to restore and increase funding as quickly as possible, and eliminate regulatory impediments.
The full text is posted on the NARUC Website, at summer.narucmeetings.org/2011SummerFinalResolutions.pdf.