Top energy leaders from the six New England states met with utility and advanced energy industry leaders last month to explore common efforts to modernize the electric power grid to maximize the benefits of distributed energy resources like solar, battery storage, energy efficiency, demand response, and microgrids for reliability and customer choice. In a daylong session led by the AEE Institute, Northeast Clean Energy Council, and the Boston Green Ribbon Commission, and held in the Boston offices of law firm Mintz Levin, government officials, utility executives, and business leaders took a regional look at creating a 21st century electricity system in New England – and pledged to continue working together on the question of rate design for distributed energy resources, including the increasingly contentious subject of net metering.
Last week, New York State launched a new “energy modernization” initiative, complete with a regulatory proceeding that could greatly expand opportunities for advanced energy companies. AEE has already contributed to that effort, by facilitating an Energy Industry Working Group that has outlined a path toward a 21st century electricity system in New York – the first time, to our knowledge, that a report proposing changes to utility business model and regulatory frameworks has been produced with the involvement and support of both advanced energy companies and a state’s major electric utilities, including Central Hudson, Consolidated Edison Co. of NY and Orange & Rockland Utilities, Iberdrola USA, National Grid USA, New York Power Authority, and PSEG Long Island.