Staff filed a report in the Energy Rules docket with an initial draft of its proposed modifications to renewable energy standards, resource planning and procurement, and electric/gas energy efficiency rules, environmental portfolio standards and net metering rules. A Stakeholder Meeting to discuss the revisions will be held April 29-30, 2019, at the Commission's Phoenix office.

Staff additionally noted that its proposal regarding retail electric competition will be docketed in June and discussed at a workshop in July.

The full text of Staff's Report on Possible Modifications to the Energy Rules is available on the NEM Website.

The Commission issued an Order in its statutorily-required biennial review of electric standard offer service (SOS). As had been suggested by NEM, the Commission decided to retain the SOS adder. Also consistent with NEM's recommendation, the Commission decided to eliminate the twelve-month minimum stay requirement for commercial customers. The Commission reasoned that, "the elimination of the minimum stay will provide commercial customers with the same customer choice flexibility as residential customers. . . . Therefore, the Commission will publish a NOPR revising the Commission’s SOS rules to eliminate the minimum stay provision."

Despite concerns expressed by NEM and other stakeholders, the Commission Order also established a pilot program to procure renewable energy through long-term purchase power agreements for electricity generated by solar or wind power facilities located within the PJM region with a target quantity of five percent of SOS load and with a June 1, 2023, projected delivery date. Currently operational generation facilities cannot be included in the PPAs. The Commission directed the SOS Working Group to do the following:

"(1) address the requirements for a draft request for proposals for long-term renewable energy purchase power agreements (“PPA”) for electricity generated by solar or wind power facilities located within the PJM Interconnection region (“PJM”) to provide a target quantity of five (5) percent of the SOS load; (2) review the SOS rules to determine whether and how they need to be revised to accommodate the introduction of long-term renewable energy PPAs into the SOS procurement portfolio; (3) consider the feasibility of increasing the percentage of SOS load served by long-term renewable energy PPAs to up to 10 percent in the future; and (4) consider the feasibility of using some part of the 100 MWs wind facility Exelon is required to develop pursuant to the merger commitment in the Exelon-Pepco merger to satisfy some or all of the target quantity of five (5) percent of the SOS load through long-term renewable energy PPAs, and whether this renewable generation could be used to provide additional SOS load beyond five (5) percent in the future."

The first meeting of the SOS Working Group will be held May 7, 2019, at 10AM at the Commission.

The full texts of the SOS Order and SOS Working Group Meeting Notice are available on the NEM Website.

HB689 pertains to consumer education and increased website posting requirements for both electric and natural gas suppliers. The Commission currently only maintains an electric shopping website. Accordingly, price reporting and posting for natural gas offers is a new requirement. The enrolled bill has not yet been signed by Governor Hogan.

HB689 would require:
1) Each electric supplier actively seeking residential customers in a service territory in the state shall maintain at least one open offer to supply electricity to residential customers on the Commission website at all times;
2) The Commission's electric shopping website shall permit sorting of offers to residential electric customers based on cost of service, cost of electricity per kilowatt-hour, rate structure, duration of the contract, cancellation fee and any other aspect of service the Commission deems necessary;
3)The Commission's electric shopping website shall include a link to each electricity supplier with an open offer to residential electric customers;
4) The Commission's electric shopping website shall include a link to a consumer complaint process through the Commission;
5) The Commission shall establish a natural gas shopping website that permits sorting of open offers to residential natural gas customers based on cost of service, cost of natural gas per therm, rate structure, duration of the contract, cancellation fee and any other aspect the Commission deems necessary;
6) The Commission's natural gas shopping website shall include a link to each natural gas supplier with an open offer to residential natural gas customers;
7) The Commission's natural gas shopping website shall include a link to a consumer complaint process through the Commission; and
8) The Commission shall maintain a secure portal on its website to collect information from natural gas suppliers to which suppliers shall submit, at least once a month, open offers to supply natural gas.

The full text of HB689 is available on the NEM Website.