The Commission is requesting comments on Staff's Report in the Modernizing the Energy Delivery System for Increased Sustainability (MEDSIS) proceeding. Staff's Report sets out the scope of the Commission's statutory jurisdiction. It recommends that rulemakings be commenced to address various types of Distributed Energy Resources and to adopt definitions of distributed energy resource, distributed generation, fossil fuel generator, cogeneration systems, fuel cells, microturbines, net energy metering facilities, backup generators, energy storage, batteries, electric vehicles, demand response, and microgrids. Staff also recommends initiating a rulemaking to clarify the definition of "electrical company" to expressly exclude any person or entity distributing electricity from a behind-the-meter generator to a retail customer behind the same meter. Staff also recommends initiating a rulemaking to adopt streamlined notice of construction rules for renewables generating facilities.

Staff also recommends changing the definition of "electricity supplier" under the Commission's rules. This is premised on the idea that contracts entered into by a customer with a behind-the-meter generator do not require the same level of Commission supervision as sales involving competitive electric suppliers. Staff therefore proposes the definition of "electricity supplier" expressly exclude, "any person or entity that owns a behind-the-meter generator and sells or supplies the electricity from that generator to a single retail customer or customers behind the same meter."

Staff opined that the Commission need not act on the issue of Pepco's ownership of DER facilities, "so long as the electricity generated by such facilities is not sold but is instead used by Pepco to support the reliable operation of the distribution system."

Comments on the Staff Report are due March 27, 2017. The full texts of the Staff Report and Order Requesting Comments are available on the NEM Website.

The Commission is seeking stakeholder input on the scope of proceedings to implement recently enacted Section 6W of Act 341 pertaining to electric resource adequacy. The Commission noted that a pending MISO filing at FERC and the recent legislation had presented three solutions, "to long-term resource adequacy concerns facing the state of Michigan and the customers of Consumers and DTE Electric, including those served by alternative electric suppliers (AESs)," including: "(1) a three-year Forward Resource Auction (FRA) embodied within the Competitive Retail Solution (CRS) application filed on November 1, 2016 by the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc. (MISO), that was contingent upon approval by the FERC; (2) a Prevailing State Compensation Mechanism (PSCM) that also required FERC approval; and (3) a State Reliability Mechanism (SRM)." However, FERC recently issued an order rejecting the MISO CRS filing. The Commission is seeking comment on whether its resource adequacy proceedings should therefore be narrowed in scope to exclude such considerations. The Commission is also seeking comment on whether to move forward with consideration of an SRM for UMERC, UPPCo and Cloverland, in addition to Consumers and DTE Electric. Comments are requested by March 7, 2017. The full text of the Order is available on the NEM Website.