“This order from the Public Service Commission is a huge step toward a better energy future for New York State,” said Lisa Frantzis, Senior Vice President, Advanced Energy Economy, a national business organization. “This order provides a framework for bringing exciting new options to customers for meeting their electricity needs flexibly, reliably, and affordably. We commend Chair Zibelman and the Commission for their leadership in charting a course that will maximize the value of distributed energy resources for households, businesses, and the economy.”
“The Alliance for Clean Energy New York is encouraged by this order from the Public Service Commission,” said Anne Reynolds, Executive Director of the Alliance for Clean Energy New York. “This ruling is a step toward providing the certainty needed for future development of grid-scale renewables – like wind power and hydropower – as the state's current program expires this year. Industry has been awaiting a signal that New York will have a long-term renewables policy to replace it. We are also pleased that there will be strong energy efficiency goals during the transition and we look forward to working with the Commission on building new business opportunities for energy efficiency, which will help to ensure that New York does not backslide on its previous successes in reducing energy demand. We further applaud the Commission's balanced approach to the question of utilities owning distributed energy resources, a critical issue in creating open and competitive markets for efficiency, solar, small wind and hydro, and other distributed clean energy technologies.”
“NECEC applauds the innovative policy framework released by the NYPSC to spur market growth for distributed energy resources and looks forward to collaborating to move this framework forward,” said New England Clean Energy Council (NECEC) Vice President of Policy and Government Affairs, Janet Gail Besser. “New York is leading the nation in the effort to bring the electric power system fully into the 21st century by establishing a regulatory framework that will encourage investment that creates value for customers, opportunities for new, emerging and established competitive third party providers of energy services and products, and a new business model for distribution utilities as enabling platform providers. This order charts a course toward a more efficient and resilient grid, capable of delivering cleaner and more affordable energy to New York's citizens, businesses and industries.”
Background
In a regulatory proceeding entitled “Reforming the Energy Vision” (REV), begun in the spring of 2014, the New York Public Service Commission seeks to redefine the roles of electric utilities and change the regulatory framework to facilitate much larger use of distributed energy resources (DER) – energy efficiency, demand response, energy storage, and distributed generation like rooftop solar and on-site wind turbines – to meet both system and customer needs, while still maintaining the core principles of utility regulation in providing safe, reliable, universal service at just and reasonable rates. On February 26, 2015, the Commission released its first major order in the REV proceeding. The so-called "Track One" order lays out the basic policy framework for REV and its implementation and sets a timeline for the next phases of the proceeding. The order addresses foundational issues such as the role of the utility as the “Distributed System Platform” provider, and the role of the utility in DER ownership and energy efficiency programs.
Media Contacts:
For AEE:
Monique Hanis, mhanis@aee.net, 202-236-8220 (cell)
For ACE NY:
Anne Reynolds, areynolds@aceny.org, 518-432-1405 (office), 518-248-4556 (mobile)
For NECEC:
Kate Plourd, kplourd@necec.org, 617-500-9993 (office)