October 2012 Connecting to the Grid Newsletter

WHAT’S NEW AS OF October 2012?

Note from the Editor

Follow the Leader: Why Everyone Should be Paying Attention to California’s Rule 21 Revision

Even if you regularly follow news about renewable energy, you might have missed a quiet but significant development out of California last month.  On September 13th, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) adopted a substantial revision to its influential Rule 21, which governs state-jurisdictional interconnection procedures.  This revision builds on Hawaii’s successful interconnection reform process in 2011 by establishing several new national best practices, removing unnecessary barriers to the state’s flourishing distributed generation (DG) market.

To get a better understanding of the implications of the new rule, I reached out to Sky Stanfield, one of my colleagues who participated in the reform process on behalf of IREC.  I asked Sky to weigh in on the following reasons we think the rule revision is worthy of some attention.

[Continued in Newsletter]

State News in Detail

Northeast States

Massachusetts interconnection working group issues final report

Vermont requests information on the costs-benefit of net metering

Mid-Atlantic States    

New Jersey BPU addresses meter aggregation and voltage drop

Midwestern States     

Michigan PSC issues opportunity to comment on interconnection forms

Southern States       

Tennessee co-op offers members a share of the sun

Western States  

California PUC approves significant interconnection revisions

Colorado city amends net metering policy

Utah PSC approves major new solar program

Other States               

Hawaiian utility streamlines interconnection for small

Upcoming Events

Miscellaneous News

IREC releases Anual Updates and Trends Report

New and Improved Distributed Wind Policy Comparison Tool released

Download the full newsletter as a PDF: October 2012 Connecting to the Grid Newsletter

FORMAT

While customer-sited net metering and interconnection policies are primarily addressed at the state level, they are also becoming important on a regional basis. This newsletter has been designed to provide state-level policy updates and capture emerging regional trends. Connecting to the Grid is a free, electronic newsletter published each month by the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, Inc. (IREC). Click here to subscribe.

Editor: Laurel Varnado

Laurel Passera

Laurel is a Senior Renewables Analyst for IREC attorneys Keyes, Fox & Wiedman, and engages in research and analysis of net metering and interconnection regulatory trends to support IREC’s outreach and communication efforts. In 2009, Laurel was a Southeast Regional Network fellow for the Southeast Environmental Leadership Program and currently sits on Raleigh City Council’s Environmental Advisory Board.