The Commission will hold a technical conference on the implementation of the solar requirement of the State's renewable portfolio standard program. The conference will be held October 19, 2007, at 10AM in the Commission's 16th floor hearing room. Issues for discussion include: background on the solar market; other states experiences (New Jersey, Pennsylvania) with solar RPS programs; renewable energy credit trading platforms such as PJM-GATS and Clean Power Markets, Inc.; and metering and renewable energy generation verification. Those interested in participating as a panelist should notify staff at gkim@psc.state.md.us by October 12, 2007. Written submissions on these issues are due October 16, 2007. The full text of the Notice of Solar Technical Conference is available on the NEM Website.

A settlement has been filed on Keyspan's gas rates. The settlement term is for five years, commencing January 1, 2008, and ending December 31, 2012. The settlement provides that Keyspan NY (KEDNY) will begin a POR program by October 1, 2008, for ESCOs participating in consolidated billing. The Keyspan LI (KEDLI) POR program will begin on or before April 1, 2009. KEDNY and KEDLI are to work collaboratively with marketers to develop terms of the POR programs.

KEDNY and KEDLI's merchant function charge (MFC) will be included in the Gas Adjustment Clause/Transportation Adjustment Clause. The MFC includes uncollectibles, return on working capital, return on gas in storage, collection costs, and gas procurement/sales promotion. KEDNY's MFC will be as follows ($/dt): 2008 - 0.567, 2009 - 0.565, 2010 - 0.558, 2011 - 0.551, and 2012 - 0.540. KEDLI's MFC will be as follows ($/dt): 2008 - 0.377, 2009 - 0.374, 2010 - 0.367, 2011 - 0.361, and 2012 - 0.352.

KEDNY's billing and payment processing rate will be $0.76 per bill as of January 1, 2008, and this rate will also serve as the ESCO consolidated billing fee. KEDLI's billing and payment processing rate as of January 1, 2008, will be $0.65 per bill, and will also serve as the ESCO consolidated billing fee.

KEDNY will reformat its bills on or before October 1, 2008, consistent with the Commission's unbundling order. KEDLI will do so by July 1, 2008.

KEDNY and KEDLI will convene a transportation and balancing issues collaborative by March 1, 2008, with recommended revisions to be filed with the Commission by July 1, 2008.

The full text of the Keyspan Gas Rate Settlement is available on the NEM Website.

The electric utilities previously submitted plans for advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) deployment to the Commission. During Staff's review of the utilities filings, "it became apparent that the utilities do not have a consistent understanding of what physical and/or functional characteristics an AMI system should include." The Commission believes it is important to evaluate the utilities filings using a consistent standard. Accordingly, it has issued a proposed list of AMI system features and functions to form a standard. These include:

"a) ANSI compliant (must meet all ANSI standards).
b) Bi-directional registration (supports net metering).
c) Visual read capability for cumulative usage.
d) Ability to provide time-stamped interval data, at hourly or shorter time intervals.
e) On-board meter memory capable of storing at least 60 days of readings.
f) Direct, real-time (defined as a time lag of five minutes or less) remote read-only access for customers and/or competitive providers to meter data.
g) Capability to remotely read meters on-demand.
h) Utilizes open standards-based communication protocols and platforms, e.g., broadband, PLC, internet, XML, MV-90, Zigbee, DNP3, etc.
i) Two-way communications capability, including ability to remotely upgrade meter firmware.
j) Ability to send signals to customer equipment to trigger demand response functions, and/or connect with a home area network (HAN) to provide direct or customer-activated load control.
k) Positive notification of outage/restoration.
l) Self diagnostics, including tamper flagging capability.
m) Upgrade capability."

Comments are requested on whether the list is comprehensive enough, whether items should be removed from the list, whether the items are accurately and/or sufficiently defined, and any other related matters. Comments are due December 10, 2007. The full text of the Notice Seeking Comment is available on the NEM Website.