NH Grid Modernization Working Group

NH Grid Modernization Working Group

Meeting #1–April 29 2016

Facilitator/Mediator: Dr. Jonathan Raab, Raab Associates, Ltd.

Consultant to NH PUC Staff: Tim Woolf, Synapse Energy Economics

Draft Meeting Summary

Welcome/Introductions

Commissioner Kathryn Baileywelcomed the Working Group members and discussed the importance of this proceeding to the Commission, and then charged the group to develop recommendations on grid modernization for the Commission’s consideration.

The Working Member representatives and alternates as well as others from the public introduced themselves. Altogether there were 44 people in attendance at the first Working Group meeting. See attendees in Appendix I.

Dr. Raab went over the agenda for the day and the workplan for the entire Working Group process. There were several questions but no major concerns expressed about the workplan.

See slide decks used during the first meeting HERE.

Groundrules

Dr. Raab reviewed the draft groundrules. There were several questions related to the role of alternates during the meetings. Dr. Raab clarified that regardless of whether alternates were sitting at the inner table or not they would be able to fully participate in the meetings, and that it was not too late to designate an alternate. With those clarifications all of the Working Group members agreed to abide by the groundrules for the duration of the Working Group process.

Grid Modernization Outcomes, Capabilities, and Enablers

Dr. Raab reviewed Table 2 from the NH PUC’s stakeholder process scoping order. He explained how this was developed during the Massachusetts Grid Modernization stakeholder process, and it was meant as a straw proposal for NH. After Dr. Raab went through the table in detail, other Working Group members who participated in the Massachusetts process provided additional background and perspective. After Members asked clarifying questions, we then brainstormed potential improvements.

The emerging themes from the brainstorming session included:

1)Consider adding bullets from page 2 of Order on “Overall Grid Modernization Objectives” at the top and above this table

2)Add new Outcome—“Customer Engagement and Empowerment” along with appropriate capabilities and enablers

3)Consider combining“Prevent Outages” and “Reduce Impact of Outages” into “Resilience.”

4)Leave “Optimize Demand” and “Integrate Distributed Resources”as separate outcomes but add capabilities and enablers that are relevant to both even if redundant—eg. TVR

5)Consider 4th column on what customers need to provide to enable the desired outcome

The Working Group brainstormed candidate Capabilities and Enablers for Customer Engagement and Empowerment; and for Resilience. See the last three slides in the Meeting #1 slide deck for details HERE.

Dr. Raab and Mr. Woolf agreed to develop a revised Table 2 with these changes and circulate to the Working Group for their comments prior to the next Working Group meeting. Dr. Raab and Mr. Woolf will then compile and circulate the suggested improvements prior to the 2nd meeting—for further refinement at the 2nd meeting.

NH Electric Utilities Current Systems and Plans-- Grid Facing Technologies

Eversource, Unitil, and Liberty utilities provided brief overviews of their grid facing technology investments and strategies (see Eversource and Unitil slides). Tim Woolf then reviewed the compilation of relevant data submitted by the utilities and compiled by Synapse and asked the utilities clarifying questions. Following Tim’s presentation and questions, the discussion was opened up to the Working Group members and other attendees.

A few of the main points from the presentations/discussions included:

1)Utilities are in various stages of automating their distribution systems—primarily to enhance resiliency.

2)Utilities are still in the relatively early stages of being able to measure minimum loads and to enable two way power flow –both important in integrating distributed energy resources.

3)System protections related to two-way power flow are generally paid for by interconnecting customers with distributed resources rather than being socialized across all customers.

4)It will be important for customers and third parties interested in installing distributed energy resources to know:

Areas that could trigger significant upgrade costs—that the interconnecting customer would likely need to shoulder
Areas of potential high value to the distribution system—because they could contribute to deferring or downsizing distribution system upgrade costs and/or are high load growth areas

NH Electric Utilities Current Systems and Plans—Customer Engagement and Metering

Eversource, Unitil, and Liberty utilities provided brief overviews of their customer engagement and metering technology investments and strategies (see Eversource and Unitil slides). Tim Woolf then reviewed the compilation of relevant data submitted by the utilities and compiled by Synapse and asked the utilities clarifying questions. Following Tim’s presentation and questions, the discussion was opened up to the Working Group members and other attendees.

A few of the main points from the presentations/discussions included:

1)Almost all of the residential customers, and most of the C &I customers are on (or soon will be on) flat distribution charges; legacy TOU rates have only very few customers

2)Customer participation in energy efficiency programs has been relatively moderate; participation in distributed energy resources has been small but growing; and customer participation in demand response programs has been limited to Eversource customers

3)Liberty uses primarily AMR meters installed in 2002; Eversource uses primarily AMR meters installed in 2014/15; and Until uses an AMI system mostly installed in 2007

4)Currently only Unitil’s AMI-based system has metering-related functionality beyond drive by meter reading; however, there are alternative ways to achieve some of that functionality utilizing other technologies and pathways

Planning for Meeting #2 (May 26—9:00 a.m. to 4:00)

We ended the meeting by discussing ways to improve future meetings, and how to specifically prepare for the next meeting. Next steps are as follows:

Explore finding a larger and more flexible room to accommodate the Working Group meetings—Raab w/PUC and OEP
Post presentations ahead or concurrent with meetings where possible (so participants can follow on their laptops)—Raab and Synapse
Develop a revised Table 2 (Grid Mod Outcomes, Capabilities, and Enablers) based on input from Meeting #1 and circulate to WG members—Raab and Synapse
Provide suggested improvement ahead of 2nd meeting—WG members
Post Grid Mod planning requirements from other states (e.g., MA, NY, & CA) for review by WG members ahead of 2nd WG meeting—Raab and Synapse
Post Grid Mod cost-effectiveness analysis methods from other states (e.g., MA, NY, & CA) for review by WG members ahead of 2nd WG meeting—Raab and Synapse
Develop presentation on current NH IRP requirements—NH PUC Staff

Appendix I:

New Hampshire Grid Modernization Attendance 4.29.16

Organization / Representative
Acadia Center / Ellen Hawes
Axsess / Douglas Langdon
City of Lebanon, NH / Clifton Below
Conservation Law Foundation-NH / Melissa Birchard
Energy Freedom Coalition of America / Todd Griset
Eversource Energy / Camilo Serna
Mathew Fossum (alt)
Liberty Utilities / Heather Tebbetts
Chris Brouillard (alt)
NECEC and NHSEA / Kate Epsen
Janet Besser (alt)
Brianna Brand (alt)
Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnership / Natalie Treat
NH DES / Rebecca Ohler
NH Legal Assistance / Dennis Labbe
NH Office of Energy and Planning / Meredith Hatfield
Rick Minard (alt)
NH PUC / Commissioner Bailey
NH PUC Staff (ex officio) / Tom Frantz
Les Stachow (alt)
NH Office of Consumer Advocate / Donald Kreis
James Brennan (alt)
Patricia Martin, retired engineer / Patricia Martin
Retail Energy Supply Association (RESA) / Marc Hanks (Direct Energy)
Revolution Energy / Clay Mitchell
Henry Herndon (alt)
The Jordan Institute / Laura Richardson
Unitil / Justin Eisfeller
Kevin Sprague (alt)
Gary Epler (alt)
Others
Name / Organization
Marc Brown / NE Ratepayers Association
Shelagh Connelly / NH Municipal Association
Karen Cramton / NH PUC
Brian Dickie / Eversource
Chris Goulding / Eversource
Kerry Holmes / NH OEP
Lee Lajoie / Eversource
Tom Meissner / Unitil
Amanda Noonan / NH PUC
David O'Brien / Navigant
Bruce Overton / Eversource
Deandra Perruccio / NH OEP
Lisa Shapiro / GCG Law
Michael Sununu / Sununu Enterprises