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N.Y. Technical Conference to Look Squarely At Question of Utility Ownership of Distributed Energy Resources

October 13, 2014

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Copyright 2010-14 EnergyChoiceMatters.com
Reporting by Karen Abbott • kabbott@energychoicematters.com

The question of utility, or utility affiliate, ownership will be the focus of one of the panels at a supplemental technical conference to be held November 6 in New York's Reforming the Energy Vision proceeding.

The conference is to address questions including:

• What sorts of market conditions, if any, might warrant a role for utilities in facilitating DER investments primarily made for economic purpose?

• Should utilities or their unregulated affiliates be allowed to invest or co-invest in such DER resources? If so, what market power protections are needed?

• What data would need to be available to market participants to provide transparency, and what sorts of remedies might be available in the event of suspected market power abuses?

• Or should such DER investment be left solely to customers and third parties?

• If so, what type of regulatory incentives might encourage utilities to actively promote cost-effective investments?

• How should the utility take advantage of such resources for the benefit of its customers?

• How can markets best be structured so that economic investments reduce the need for reliability-driven projects?

A separate panel at the conference will address customer information issues and access by distributed energy providers. Questions include:

1) What customer-specific information is needed to facilitate development of a vigorous DER market?

2) What kind and form of information and communication would attract DER customers and facilitate vendor acquisition of customers?

3) In what form should the information be provided to vendors and by whom? Should vendors be charged a fee to access the information to support all or a portion of the cost of developing the information and communications system? If so, how should that fee be established?

4) How should end-use customer privacy concerns be addressed?

5) What safeguards should be in place to ensure that customer-specific information in possession of DER vendors is secure?

6) What is the PSC's role in helping customers know what is available?

Case 14-M-0101

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