Rhode Island PUC
Abigail Anthony is a Commissioner at the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission.
In discussions with ten Commissioners from every end of the country, PUF's Paul Kjellander in late July asked about what's driving the energy transition in their states, their state's policies, barriers for the transition to overcome, and risks, also the role of consumer-owned energy.
PUF's Paul Kjellander: What do you see as the primary drivers of the energy transition for utilities in the State of Rhode Island?
Commissioner Abigail Anthony: The energy transition for the electric company started years ago when the legislature advanced and passed a lot of laws promoting distributed generation, renewable energy standard, and energy efficiency. Not long after, more programs were introduced and we started doing long-term contracting, which is how we got the offshore wind farm. In part, these were economic strategies for the state — addressing volatility and economic development and the need to be clean.
Over the years, all those programs have expanded. Notably, in the last couple of years, our legislature accelerated our renewable energy standard to one hundred percent by 2033. The biggest changes though, will be driven by Rhode Island's Act on Climate.