NEM Executive Committee members are reminded that the summer policy development meeting will be held June 28-29, 2001, at the Hotel Boulderado in Boulder, Colorado, 1-800-433-4344. Agenda items will include NEM's strategy for summer shortages, the development of, "National Guidelines for Implementing Distributed Generation and Related Services" and "National Guidelines to Implement Competitive Advanced Metering and Related Information Technology," strategies for utility offerings of long term fixed prices, and competitive services by tariff, and the next steps on National Energy Technology Policy development and implementation. A hotlink to register for the meeting is provided here and on the NEM Website for your convenience.

NEM is pleased to report that its draft, "National Guidelines for Implementing Distributed Generation and Related Services," has been approved by the Distributed Generation Policy Committee and will be debated and voted upon by the full Executive Committee on June 28. The final draft recommends that: 1) regulators should unbundle distribution rates, eliminate penalties, redundant charges, barriers to entry, and implement tariffs that encourage investments in distributed generation; 2) utilities must provide equal, non-discriminatory access to markets for power and auxiliary services; 3) federal and state governments must adopt uniform technical requirements and procedures for interconnection of distributed generation technology; 4) reasonable environmental regulations and wide-scale education are critical; and 5) utilities should only perform natural monopoly functions. NEM appreciates the input and cooperation of George Phillips, Jon Gipson, Scott Brown, Tony Prophet, Scott Castelaz, and Nat Treadway in the development of this document. The full text of NEM's National Guidelines for Implementing Distributed Generation and Related Services is available on the NEM Website.

NEM is pleased to report that the draft, "National Guidelines to Implement Competitive Advanced Metering and Related Information Technology," has been approved by the NEM Metering Policy Committee and will be debated and voted upon by the Executive Committee at the June 28 meeting. The Executive Committee will debate and vote on the draft on June 28. The document calls for immediate low-cost access to meters and information and (1) tax incentives for private investments to upgrade the metering and related technology infrastructure and (2) PBR for utilities for similar investments conditioned on competitive unbundling by that utility. NEM appreciates the input and cooperation of Emmett Kelly, Marguerite Bourgeois, Greg Lizak and Cody Graves in the development of this document. The full text of the Draft National Guidelines to Implement Competitive Advanced Metering and Related Information Technology is available on the NEM Website.

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce sent a letter to FERC Chairman Hebert urging the implementation of a plan to mitigate wholesale prices and monitor wholesale sales of electric energy in the West around the clock. The Committee also urged FERC to establish a demand response program for the Western states that would establish a clearinghouse for demand reduction agreements to enable consumers to sell foregone power to LDCs or third party purchasers. The full text of the Committee Letter is available on the NEM Website.

NEM is pleased to report that its Federal Policy Committee Co-Chair, Barry Green, will participate in the RTO interregional coordination panel to be convened on July 19, 2001, at 11AM. The full text of the Conference Notice is available on the NEM Website.

PJM filed revisions to its tariff and operating agreement to implement the Commission-approved load response pilot program to be effective June 1, 2001, through May 31, 2002. The full text of PJM's Filing Letter, Tariff Revisions, Tariff Revisions (Redlined), Operating Agreement Revisions, and Operating Agreement Revisions (Redlined) are available on the NEM Website.

FERC's Office of Energy Projects will hold a meeting to explore strategies to enhance public participation in the earliest stages of natural gas facility planning including review of Staff's Outreach Action Options plan. The meeting will be held July 19, 2001. Comments on the Outreach Options Plan are due August 3, 2001. The full text of the Seminar Notice is available on the NEM Website.

NEM replied to the Utilities' comments in the standby rate proceeding arguing that the Utilities' own assertion that there are fundamental differences in patterns of demand and volumetric usage between standby customers and full service requirements customers requires that the proposed standby rate design should not apply to standby rate customers. NEM argued that investments in distributed generation should not be treated as a stranded cost and also disputed reliance on the Utilities' assumption that all distributed generation or self generation customers will require peak time demand on a continuous use basis, particularly without a properly documented cost of service study. The full text of NEM's Comments is available on the NEM Website.

NFG submitted a tariff filing to implement an $0.84 charge for its ESCO consolidated billing service and an $0.80 back-out credit for supplier-issued consolidated bills. The full text of NFG's Tariff Filing is available from NEM headquarters.

The ALJ in the NYSEG Price Protection Plan proceeding has set the following procedural schedule: Staff files counterproposal - June 18, 2001; Prehearing conference - July 9, 2001; Submission of proposals, statements, testimony or briefs in support - July 13, 2001; Responses to proposals - July 20, 2001; Evidentiary hearings - July 25-27, 2001; and Briefs - August 3, 2001.

The Board approved Net Metering, Safety and Power Quality Standards for access to the distribution system for wind and solar photovoltaic customer-generators. The Board retained a 100 kw unit size limitation, provided the unit does not exceed the current peak electric needs of the customer-generator, and adopted an interconnection standard developed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers for units up to 10 Kw (IEEE 929-2000). For units from 10-100 kw, the Board directed Staff to conduct further discussion of interconnection standards and develop recommendations within 120 days. The full text of the Order and the Net Metering Standards are available on the NEM Website.

The Commission approved the settlement in the FirstEnergy-GPU proceeding that freezes customer rates and permits GPU to implement a deferral mechanism for costs incurred in rendering provider of last resort service. The settlement provides for a freeze in MetEd/Penelec shopping credits at 4.606 cents and 4.643 cents, respectively, through December 31, 2010. CTCs will be frozen- 1/1/02 to 12/31/05- MetEd- 0.5532 cents; Penelec- 0.143 cents--1/1/06 to 12/31/15- MetEd- 0.789 cents Penelec- 0.382 cents or all stranded costs recovered. The full text of the Motion to Approve Settlement and the Settlement Agreement are available on the NEM Website.

NEM filed a Brief in the Nicor proceeding supporting the provision of single billing account agency as provided for in the hearing examiners' proposed order. The full text of NEM's Brief is available on the NEM Website.

NEM and competitive suppliers have submitted comments recommending reforms to create a more viable competitive retail market. The recommendations include allowing electronic signatures for customer enrollment and authorization of release of usage data, pricing default service to include costs in addition to commodity, permitting supplier consolidated billing, and adoption of an Internet-based data exchange infrastructure. The full text of the Comments is available on the NEM Website.

The Commission is seeking comments on Old Dominion's proposal to transfer operational control of its transmission assets to the MISO. Comments are due on July 27, 2001. Staff will issue a report on or before August 3, 2001, and responses to the report are due September 14, 2001. The full text of the Order is available on the NEM Website.