Potential Win-Win Business & Regulatory Frameworks for DG

Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC) is a leader or co-sponsor of the following three interrelated projects which are all designed to contribute to the development of win-win business and regulatory policies to support renewable DG and other clean distributed and demand resources:

1) MTC Congestion Relief Pilots

2) EPRI-STAC DER Public/Private Partnership

3) Distribution Planning Working Group

Information on each project is available at the above links. MTC is helping to coordinate all of these activities.

The following elaborates on the components of the work of the Distribution Planning Working Group (DPWG) and the Massachusetts DG Collaborative that address potential business or regulatory frameworks:

During 2006, significant analysis was completed and is available as part of the DG Collaborative's 2006 Report:

Attachment G: DG and Distribution Planning: An Economic Analysis for the DG Collaborative (by Navigant Consulting, Jan. 2006, 229 slides, with bookmarks for key sections): pdf file (1.8 MB) -- note: see also Navigant Worksheets (xls files)
Attachment I: Symposium on Technical and Business Challenges for DG to Play a Role in T&D Planning (meeting summary + slides): pdf file (2.5 MB)

The DG Collaborative's policy statement is presented in Chapter 4 of its 2006 Report, which also lists future plans, including:
- "discussion among stakeholders on the necessary elements of a comprehensive, broad-based policy, legislative and regulatory framework (which could include consideration of mechanisms such as PBR, decoupling and/or standby rates, but could also consider other mechanisms that go beyond the distribution company regulatory framework) for equitably allocating the costs, impacts and benefits of DG in such a way as to appropriately capture the identifiable, tangible and quantifiable net benefits of DG," through the Congestion Relief Pilots and the EPRI DER Partnership desribed above and other initiatives, and
- Distributed Energy Planning Workshops, scheduled to begin in September 2006, to unlock the economic value of DG for distribution planners by designing particular solutions to the technical and business “challenges” defined during FY06, and to identify particular technologies to interconnect customer-sited DG so it will be available to meet critical distribution needs (see details in Section 4.4)
The Work Group's conclusions to date are presented in the Report of the DPWG on DG and Distribution Deferral (Attachment H):
- word file | pdf file

The following two regional activities are currently working on related matters:

Treatment of Distributed Resources Under ISO-New England Market Rules

Information on the treatment of Distributed Resources for new capacity payments under ISO-New England market rules is available at the ISO Market Rules page.

Materials From MADRI and PJM

January 2007 -- Quantifying Demand Response Benefits
In PJM, The Brattle Group, for PJM and MADRI
June 2006 -- MADRI Policy Statement in Support of DER Initiatives, Mid-Atlantic Distributed Resources Initiative Working Group
January 2006 -- MADRI: Presentation to Massachusetts Symposium on Technical and Business Challenges for DG to Play a Role in T&D Planning, Richard Sedano, Regulatory Assistance Project
A pilot project similar to MTC's Congestion Relief Pilots is underway in New Jersey, funded by New Jersey’s Clean Energy Program, as described in detail in the solicitation:

April 2006 -- Utility Distributed Energy Resources Pilot Project Grant Solicitation (word)

Significant discussions are also underway at MADRI on innovative regulatory and business models. See "Materials Presented at MADRI" at the Win-Win Frameworks page.