NEM’s Annual Winter Executive Committee Meeting will be held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Orlando, Florida on January 17-19, 2018. Please register at this hotlink. A draft Agenda is available at this hotlink. The Winter Executive Committee Meeting is where the members identify and prioritize the issues, states, and utility markets of greatest import. The national and regional leadership teams will help focus NEM’s advocacy, PR and policy development activities in 2018.

The Hyatt Regency Hotel in Orlando, Florida has a block of hotel rooms at an NEM Rate of $239, and discount tickets to Disney World and Universal Studios have been reserved for members. A golf outing and welcome reception for members will be held on January 17, 2018, at the Villas of Grand Cypress Golf Course. Hotel reservations can be made at this hotlink. Call NEM headquarters at (202) 333-3288 to register for golf.

NEM’s 21st Annual National Restructuring Conference will be held April 30 – May 2, 2018, at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill Hotel, Washington, DC. An agenda is forthcoming.

DOE is launching a new initiative on how utilities are leveraging AMI and its data to streamline operations and improve customer service. The initiative will begin with a workshop on February 15, 2018, in Dallas, Texas. Participants will choose one of two tracks, operations or customer programs, with discussions focusing on how utilities are leveraging the infrastructure and data as well as future functionality being considered. Participants may share experiences, ask questions and hear what utilities are doing. You may register to attend at this hotlink.

FERC this week terminated the proceeding that it had opened in response to Secretary Perry's proposed rule on grid reliability and resilience pricing. It instead decided to open a new proceeding to examine the resilience of the bulk power system in the RTO/ISO regions.

FERC decided to terminate the proceeding on Secretary Perry's proposed rule because it did not satisfy the legal requirements under the Federal Power Act that there be a showing that the existing RTO/ISO tariffs are unjust, unreasonable, unduly discriminatory or preferential. Nor had the proposed remedy to allow all "eligible resources" to receive a cost-of-service rate regardless of need or cost to the system been shown to be just and reasonable. The Commission reviewed its twenty year precedent of advancing competitive market principles. It also noted it had been working to advance grid resilience, even if that exact term had not been used in prior matters.

The new proceeding to examine resilience in the RTOs/ISOs is intended to: 1) develop a common understanding of what bulk power system resilience means; 2) understand how the RTOs/ISOs assess resilience in their regions; and 3) evaluate whether Commission action on resilience is appropriate. To begin the proceeding, each RTO/ISO must submit information about resilience within sixty days.

The Commission noted that grid resilience includes not only secure onsite fuel, but also wholesale electric market rules, planning and coordination and NERC standards. The Commission also proposed the following definition of resilience: "The ability to withstand and reduce the magnitude and/or duration of disruptive events, which includes the capability to anticipate, absorb, adapt to, and/or rapidly recover from such an event."

The full text of the Order is available on the NEM Website.