The New York Public Service Commission announced that it has approved moving $32 million in funds from Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) allocations to support the state’s call to increase development of solar power. The commission concomitantly authorized reallocation of $2 million in existing funding for competitive solar programs from downstate to upstate projects to meet current market demand. According to the commission, the program has been successful in promoting larger PV systems that could not economically compete in a statewide bidding program.

The Illinois Commerce Commission accepted an annual report filed by Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd) documenting its efforts to implement its advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) plan, including steps taken by the utility to educate customers on the upcoming deployment of the smart meters. Earlier in June, the commission had approved a revised schedule for installation of 60,000 new meters in ComEd’s service area beginning in the third quarter of 2013.

In response to recent state legislation that explicitly provides for rate-regulated utilities to pursue multiyear rate plans, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission adopted a set of guiding principles for the development of such plans. The law, passed in 2011, allows utilities to request multiyear plans, up to a maximum three-year rate-effective period, under which the rates to be charged in each year of the set period will be established in but a single rate proceeding.

Although finding that an electric utility had raised valid issues about net metering policies that should be more closely examined, the Idaho Public Utilities Commission has denied most of the utility’s plan for modifying compensation schedules applicable to net-metering customers. The utility, Idaho Power Company, had proposed that residential and small commercial customers who net meter by generating their own power be moved into new customer classes and be paid differently for the energy they generate.

For the second time in two years, the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) authorized Potomac Electric Power Company (Pepco) to raise its rates. Like the utility’s 2012 rate increase, parts of the latest rate hike are made contingent upon continued improvements in service reliability.

The Michigan Public Service Commission, concerned that existing consumer privacy policies were not expansive enough and were disproportionately directed at customer data collected through advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) equipment, amended its privacy policies to assure that all customer usage information possessed by the state’s energy utilities, and not just that collected via AMI, would be protected. The commission explained that as metering and billing technologies evolve, so, too, must customer privacy practices adapt. (Case No.

In authorizing Detroit Edison Company, now operating as DTE Electric Company, to implement a new power supply cost recovery (PSCR) rate plan, the Michigan Public Service Commission (PSC) declined a request that it declare it unlikely that it would allow full recovery in the future of the utility’s requested PSCR costs due to the company’s continued operation of its aging coal plants. Instead, the commission endorsed the company’s continued participation in a so-called “reduced fuel emission” (REF) project with a corporate affiliate.

The Hawaii Public Utilities Commission has authorized three affiliated electric utilities (Hawaiian Electric Company, Hawaii Electric Light Company, Inc., and Maui Electric Company, Ltd. [the HECO companies]) to implement a pilot program designed to provide the utilities with the tools necessary for developing the requisite infrastructure for encouraging the growth and viable development of the electric vehicle (EV) market.

Citing changes in the regional electric market related to the mandated addition of renewable generating facilities, and alluding to such other factors as tightened water resource regulations and the possibility of merchant power plant shut-downs, the California Public Utilities Commission has approved an interim “flexible capacity” framework as a further component of its annual Resource Adequacy (RA) requirements process.

In its sixth annual report, the Illinois Commerce Commission’s Office of Retail Market Development (ORMD) provided an update on the status of the state’s competitive electric market, which shows a second straight year of dramatic increases in the number of residential users who are switching to competitive power suppliers as well as concomitant increases in the cost savings enjoyed by consumers who make the switch.