MMUA Requests Inclusion in MPUC Distributed Generation Workgroup

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MMUA Requests Inclusion in MPUC Distributed Generation Workgroup

February 28, 2017

MMUA today (Feb. 28) submitted a letter to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, requesting it be allowed to participate in a workgroup tasked with Updating the Generic Standards for the Interconnection and Operation of Distributed Generation Facilities Established under Minn. Stat. 216B.1611.

MMUA requested its Director of Engineering and Policy Analysis Robert Jagusch be included as a Workgroup Participant and its Director of Government Relations Bill Black as an Observer. As a Participant, MMUA agreed to:

1. Participate in the written comments round in advance of the first work group meeting;

2. Prepare for and attend the meetings and conference calls consistently throughout each phase;

3. Engage actively and respectfully in constructive dialogue during the issue discussions;

4. Review in a timely manner workgroup materials distributed by commission staff provided via work group listserv or e-dockets;

5. Develop, when invited, as an organization or a member of an ad hoc subgroup, presentations and/or subtopic materials for consideration by the workgroup at upcoming meetings; and,

6. Work toward agreement where possible and, where possible, clearly articulate differences.

In its first phase, the workgroup is anticipated to meet five times, every other month, starting in April. The second phase of the update, to address Technical Requirements, is expected to begin December 2017.

The process began when the Environmental Law and Policy Center, Fresh Energy and the Interstate Renewable Energy Council jointly filed a proposal for a transition of Minnesota’s interconnection standards to standards based on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission standards.

Among the topics open for initial comment are how should the Commission take into account different situations of individual utilities (such as utility size, volume of interconnection requests, etc.), while continuing to set statewide generic standards. The MPUC docket is No. 16-521.