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Decoupling Resources |
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In February 2006, the Center released its report on NJ's Energy Infrastructure as part of its discussions through its Strategic Issues Forum. The report made a number of recommendations, one of which is for a closer examination of Decoupling and its potential impacts for New Jersey's utilities and ratepayers. The issue of decoupling or the related performance based ratemaking has become a hot topic among regulators and energy stakeholders in many states across the nation. This web page was set up to collect in a single place as many of the resources available on the Internet about Decoupling and related subjects as well as to provide information about the Center's upcoming Decoupling Symposium and future activities.
Tuesday, April 11, 2006 - 10 am to 2 pm
Special Events Forum, Civic Square Building
33 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ
Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers University
All ratemaking is incentive-based in that it rewards some patterns of conduct and deters others. The challenge is to set up the incentives inherent in ratemaking to encourage explicitly investments aligned with the state’s energy infrastructure goals. The Center will be hosting a forum to examine the possible policy options and potential effects of decoupling on energy infrastructure and investment in New Jersey. There are many concerns about and perceptions of decoupling and its consideration will be benefited by further discussion by experts and stakeholders.
10:00 am Welcome by Dean Hughes
10:15 am Introduction by Scott Weiner
10:30 am Defining Decoupling and A Survey of Its Optionsby Frank Felder
11:00 am Developing a Distributed Resources Agenda for NJ by Jim Torpey
11:30 am Stakeholder Discussion moderated by Scott Weiner
12:30 pm Lunch (Room 112)
1:00 pm Key Note Speakers followed by audience Q&A
NJ BPU President Jeanne M. Fox
NJ BPU Commissioner Frederick F. Butler
To RSVP for the Symposium please contact us by email at ceeep@policy.rutgers.edu or by phone at 732-932-5680 ext 686.
Directions to the Bloustein School at Rutgers University can be found here:
http://policy.rutgers.edu/school/mapdirections.pdf.
October 25, 2005
Presented for discussion at the Strategic Issues Forum meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2005. The whitepaper discusses the following questions:
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What are the policy objectives of decoupling? Decoupling itself is a tool to achieve
one or more desired ends. The specific goals and objectives that proponents of
decoupling are trying to achieve need to be identified and developed.
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What does decoupling mean? There are many ways of decoupling a utility's profits
from its sales, and there is a lot of experience in the U.S. with many of these methods.
Any particular decoupling proposal must be defined precisely in order to evaluate it.
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What are the alternatives to decoupling? Decoupling is not the only way to increase
the amount of energy efficiency and distributed generation, and alternatives to
decoupling should be evaluated as part of any discussion on decoupling.
To view the Whitepaper is available click here.
March 2006
This energy infrastructure
study was undertaken at the request of the
members of the Center's Advisory
Board and participants of the Strategic Issues
Forum. It was part of a yearlong process that
included a series of structured discussions with the
Forum. Five discussions were held with the Forum.
This report is organized as follows. The topic
of Chapter 1 is discussing possible criteria upon
which policymakers can use to evaluate infrastructure
policy and decisions and describing New Jersey’s
energy infrastructure and its linkages. The energy
infrastructure description serves to raise some important
issues that should be considered. Chapter 2 discusses
the status of New Jersey’s energy infrastructure, and
evaluates its economic impact and role in the state’s
economic development. Chapter 3 describes how
policy barriers impact upon energy infrastructure
investment, and discusses policy initiatives, including examining decoupling further in a New Jersey context, to
encourage energy infrastructure investment planning
and policy. The appendix catalogues the various
elements of the energy infrastructure located in New
Jersey.
For a copy of NJ's Energy Infrastructure Report, click here.
If you have suggestions for other documents or presentations to add to the list below, please email Dan Benson at bensond@rci.rutgers.edu or by phone at 732-932-5680 ext 680.
Developing a Distributed Resources Agenda for New Jersey
by Jim Torpey, President - Madison Energy Consultants
April 11th, Decoupling Symposium with DER Stakeholder Forum
Presentation
New Approaches to Ratemaking
Performance Based Regulation (PBR): Decoupling Revenues from Rates
by Mike Ambrosio,
Center for Energy, Economic & Environmental Policy - Rutgers University
Presentation
Decoupling and Public Utility Regulation
by Robert J. Graniere and Anthony Cooley,
National Regulatory Research Institute
http://www.nrri.ohio-state.edu/dspace/bitstream/2068/321/1/94-14.pdf
Performance-Based Ratemaking for Electric Utilities
by Comnes, A., S. Stoft, N. Greene, and L. Hill
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. November 1995
http://eetd.lbl.gov/EA/EMP/reports/37577.pdf
Performance-Based Regulation in a Restructured Electricity Industry
by Synapse Energy for the NARUC, November 8, 1997.
http://www.synapse-energy.com/Downloads/SynapseReport. . . .97-U02.pdf
Breaking The Consumption Habit
Ratemaking for Efficient Resource Decisions
by Sheryl Carter
The Electricity Journal, December 2001
http://www.nrdc.org/air/energy/abreaking.asp
Do Electric-Resource Portfolio Managers Have an
Inherent Conflict-of-Interest with Energy Efficiency?
by Devra Bachrach and Sheryl Carter,
ACEEE Summer Study, 2004
http://www.neep.org/policy_and_outreach/ACEEEStudy.pdf
Joint Statement of the American Gas Association and the NRDC
http://www.ase.org/imgs/lib/e-FFICIENCY/joint_AGA_NRDC_NARUC_statement.pdf
Follow-up to August 2, 2001 OPUC Workshop
by Sheryl Carter
August 21, 2001
Read Document
Decoupling/Financial Incentives
http://www.raponline.org/Feature.asp?select=78
The Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP) is a non-profit organization, formed in 1992 by experienced utility regulators, that provides research, analysis, and educational assistance to public officials on electric utility regulation.
Their Decoupling page has links to a number of RAP created presentations and studies on decoupling, barriers to distributed resources, and performance based ratemaking.
New York
State of New York Public Service Commission Docket 04-E-0572
Proceeding on Motion of the Commission as to the Rates, Charges, Rules and Regulations of Consolidated
Edison Company of New York, Inc. for Electric Service
http://www3.dps.state.ny.us/pscweb/WebFileRoom.nsf/Web/ . . .
Comments by The NY State Consumer Protection Board on Docket 03-E-0640
Proceeding on Motion of the Commission to Investigate Potential Electric Delivery Rate Disincentives Against the Promotion of Energy Efficiency, Renewable Technologies and Distributed Generation.
http://www.consumer.state.ny.us/pdf/uility_incentives_reply_comments. . .
Minnesota
Decoupling Energy Sales from Revenues
and Other Approaches to Encourage Utility Investment in Efficiency - The Minnesota Approach
by Phyllis A. Reha, Commissioner Minnesota PUC
http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/pdf/keystone/5_19MN_DSM_Incentives_Reha.pdf
Oregon
Oregon PUC Order 02-633 - Proposed Decoupling Mechanism Denied: Portland General Electric Company
http://apps.puc.state.or.us/orders/2002ords/02-633.pdf
Order 02-634 - Public Purposes Funding and Distribution Margin Normalization
http://apps.puc.state.or.us/orders/2002ords/02-634.pdf
Initial Testimony of the NW Energy Coalition, Natural Resources Defense Council,
Citizens' Utility Board of Oregon, Community Action Directors of Oregon, and Oregon
Office of Energy before the Oregon Public Utility Commission, October 2001.
http://www.nwenergy.org/utilities/docs/decouple.html
Distributed Generation in Oregon: Overview, Regulatory Barriers and Recommendations
by Oregon PUC staff
http://www.puc.state.or.us/PUC/electric_gas/dg_report.pdf
Review of Distribution Margin Normalization (DMN) Approved by Oregon PUC for Northwest Natural Gas, Christiensen Associates
http://www.mtpc.org/RenewableEnergy/public_policy/dg/resources/. . . OregonPaper.pdf
Massachusetts
Performance Based Ratemaking/Service Quality Proceedings
http://www.mass.gov/dte/restruct/competition/index.htm#PERFORMANCE
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