NEM's Fall Industry Leadership Roundtable will be held November 15-16, 2007, in Green Bay, Wisconsin at the offices of NEM Executive Committee member Integrys Energy Services. This meeting is open to all NEM members and prospective members as well. The Agenda can be viewed at this hotlink.

NEM negotiated discounted room rates at the Ramada Plaza Green Bay at the rate of $84/night. You must call the Ramada at 920-499-0631 and request the NEM rate (it is not available on the internet). Please register for the meeting using this hotlink.

Many thanks to Integrys Energy Services for hosting the meeting.

NEM will hold its Winter Executive Committee and Policy Development Meeting on January 17 and 18, 2008, at the South Carolina Research Authority in Charleston, South Carolina for a third time. Hotel accommodations have been arranged at the rate of $109 per night at the Hilton Garden Inn, Charleston Airport, 5265 International Blvd., North Charleston, SC 29418. Please call (843) 308-9330 to make your reservations.

NEM booked the new Embassy Suites Hotel Washington D.C. Convention Center for the Annual Spring Membership Meeting and Restructuring Conference on April 29 and 30, 2008. Hotel accommodations have also been arranged at this facility located at 900 10th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001. NEM has secured preferred hotel rates of $259.00 per night. Please call (202) 739-2001 to make your reservations.

Please call headquarters for sponsorship opportunities for the Spring Event as advertisements are currently being developed. Your attendance, participation and sponsorship of these events are needed and would be greatly appreciated as would your input on speaker invitations and discussion topics.

FERC will hold a conference on the state of the natural gas industry on November 6, 2007, from 9:30AM to 12:30PM. The conference will be held in the second floor meeting room at FERC's Washington, DC headquarters. The purpose of the conference is to permit the Commission to hear from industry experts about the challenges facing the natural gas industry and its customers. Additional information on the conference will be forthcoming.

The ISO/RTO Council (IRC) released three reports on the benefits realized in organized wholesale electric markets. In its Report on "Progress of Organized Electricity Markets in North America," IRC describes the benefits as: 1) falling wholesale electricity prices in an environment of increasing demand; 2) stimulation of investment in generation, encouragement of use of demand resources and reduction in congestion costs; and 3) reliable operation of the bulk power system.

In its report on "Harnessing the Power of Demand," IRC notes that more than 23,000 megawatts of demand response are now participating in North American ISO/RTO markets, equating to 4.5% of combined electricity demand. IRC identified current barriers to increased demand response participation in the market such as lack of uniformity in metering and communications standards as well as a lack of measurement and verification standards. However, IRC notes that it is working on increased standardization in these areas.

In its report on "Increasing Renewable Resources," IRC notes that in ISOs and RTOs, "Nearly half (44%) the 300,000 MW of proposed new generation are renewable-energy projects. Wind energy is the largest single technology in the ISO and RTO interconnection queues, exceeding natural gas, more than doubling coal, and tripling nuclear." IRC also discussed the important role that ISOs and RTOs play as the major source of market data for tracking renewable portfolio standard compliance.

The full texts of the IRC Reports are available on the NEM Website.