The District of Columbia Public Service Commission issued a June 2015 Order opening a proceeding to investigate Grid Modernization. The Commission has solicited comments on the proceeding's scope from interested stakeholders, due by August 31, 2015.
Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC), in partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER), issued an RFP for consultants to prepare a two-part energy storage proposal on May 20, 2015. The first part of the study will be managed by MassCEC and examine the industry-wide energy storage landscape. The second part of the study will be managed by the DOER and examine cost-effective opportunities for a near-term energy storage intiative, with an initial funding level of $10 million.
The Masssachusetts Energy Efficiency Advisory Council (EEAC) will be recieving public comment on the Joint Utilities' 2016-18 Efficiency Program Plans on May 28, 2015 on the second floor of 100 Cambridge Street (Boston, MA) between 1pm and 4pm. A comparison between the plans proposed by the utilities and the framework proposed by the EEAC consultant can be found here.
Within the last week, the Maryland and Delaware Public Service Commissions approved a merger between Pepco and Exelon that is poised to create the largest utility in the country. Merger approval is pending in the District of Columbia.
For more background on the relationship between energy efficiency and utility mergers, see this recent NEEP blog.
The Vermont legislature recently passed landmark legislation to guide the state's path toward a fossil free energy infrastructure. The Renewable Energy Standard and Energy Transformation (RESET) program enacts "Energy Transformation" project requirements for the state's retail electric suppliers.
Examples of energy transformation projects include air source heat pump conversion, biomass heating system installation, transportation demand management, and support for electric vehicles.
New York has two important proceedings underway that will impact the future of energy efficiency resources in the Empire State. The first, the Reforming the Energy Vision proceeding (Case 14-M-0101), may fundamentally alter the existing distribution utilities and how distributed energy resources are valued. In addition, NYSERDA has proposed a new Clean Energy Fund (CEF) (Case 14-M-00549). NYSERDA's draft CEF proposal from this month can be found here.