Electricity Law Initiative

Unlocking Distributed Energy Resources

Advancements in business models and technologies of distributed energy resources (DER) open new possibilities for electricity generation, transmission, and distribution. Many existing regulatory practices were designed without consideration of such opportunities, and may erect barriers to deployment of these resources. Regulators have numerous potential paths forward to unlock the values that DERs can provide to the system, ranging from modifying retail rate designs to making fundamental reforms to state utility regulation.

• The Case Against Direct FERC Regulation of Distributed Energy Resources. Pieces together how FERC’s authority applies to DERs, finds that the resulting fragmented regulatory regime inhibits a cohesive regulatory framework for DERs, and recommends that FERC disclaim jurisdiction over DER energy sales.
• Comment on NARUC’s Manual on Compensation for Distributed Energy Resources. Urges the Subcommittee to include in the next version: 1) a thorough examination of how deployment of DERs by consumers and non-utility companies affects utility financial performance, and 2) consideration of competition and consumer choice in DER rate design.
• Comment to FERC on its Proposed Rule about DER Aggregation. Affirms that FERC has legal authority to require market operators to facilitate the participation of DER aggregators and suggests that the Commission articulate a jurisdictional line that allows states to regulate sales from individual DERs.
• Comment to Department of Energy on the Quadrennial Energy Review. Rebuts the notion that there is a “regulatory compact” between regulators and utilities that underlies regulation.
• Presentation at the Federal Trade Commission’s workshop on rooftop solar. Highlights the critical role of state regulation in how investor-owned utilities have responded to the growth of distributed energy resources.
• Primer on Utility Ratemaking – Unjust, Unreasonable, and Unduly Discriminatory: Utility Rates and the Campaign Against Rooftop Solar. Provides an historical perspective on recent and ongoing debates about rooftop solar utility rate reform (appears in The Texas Journal of Oil, Gas, and Energy Law).
• Alternative Dispute Resolution at Public Utility Commissions white paper. Provides background information on common forms of ADR, discusses considerations for using ADR in settling public utility disputes, and highlights how PUCs across the country incorporate ADR into their operations.

Power Shift Network

Power Shift connects expert communities – energy and environmental law scholars, utility regulators, technical analysts, and policymakers – around a legal vision for tomorrow’s grid. We bring these communities together through workshops, webinars, and other forums to exchange ideas, drive cutting-edge scholarship, and translate that scholarship into practical tools and policy solutions.

A sampling of Power Shift projects includes:

• Summary Report of a Discussion Marking the 80th Anniversary of the Enactment of FPA Title II. Discusses the challenges of governing an evolving industry with an eighty-year old legal framework, identified opportunities for continued adaptation and reform, and suggested topics that warrant further research and discussion.
• Webinar on Carbon Prices in RTO Markets. Judy Chang (Brattle Group) provides an overview of the market mechanics of carbon pricing in electricity markets, while Steve Weissman (Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy) and Professor Joel Eisen (University of Richmond School of Law) discuss FERC’s legal authority to allow a carbon price in the markets it regulates.
• Webinar on RTO Governance Professor Elizabeth Wilson (Univ. of Minnesota) joins Jeff Dennis and Suedeen Kelly (Akin Gump) to discuss the history of RTOs and case studies about their governance and decision making processes.

Other Documents

• Comment to FERC about Commissioner McNamee’s Participation in Certain Matters. Argues that FERC Commission McNamee is disqualified from proceedings that relate to work he conducted while serving at the U.S. Department of Energy.
• Response to FERC’s Notice of Inquiry into its Pipeline Certificate Policy Statement. Provides a history of the Natural Gas Act’s “public convenience and necessity” standard and argues that weighing costs associated with upstream and downstream GHG emissions fits well within the meaning of that phrase.
• Energy Emergencies vs. Manufactured Crises: The Limits of Federal Authority to Disrupt Power Markets. Argues that the electric power sector is not in crisis and that statutory emergency authority in the energy space is highly circumscribed and does not permit the Administration to bail out “fuel-secure” generators.