The reliability and resilience of the energy system is drawing increasing levels of attention from state regulators. While reliability is a broadly accepted term with well-defined metrics, resilience—the ability of the system to anticipate, absorb, recover from, and adapt to disruptive events, particularly high-impact, low-frequency events—is not yet incorporated into regulatory processes. NARUC is undertaking efforts to support state regulators’ approaches to defining and quantifying the benefits of resilience investments that reduce the likelihood, duration, and impacts of interruptions to electricity service.
NARUC staff experts who support these activities include:
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Energy Resilience Reference Guide
The NARUC Energy Resilience Reference Guide is envisioned as a one-stop primer for state public utility commissions (PUCs) to assist in the development of a shared language, valuation framework, and educational tool on the topic of energy resilience. The resilience of the energy system has increasingly become part of commissions’ regulatory scope so informed decisions are made regarding how to best enhance system resiliency. Several states have already established evaluative resilience criteria (via legislative statute or regulatory directive). This guide will summarize many of the critical topic areas within energy resilience and facilitate adoption of resilience valuation frameworks by which PUCs can weigh investment decisions regarding energy system resiliency. This guide is intended to encourage state PUCs to develop their own frameworks that align with existing resources and to provide topical information related to enhancing system resilience to extreme weather, cyber-attacks, a changing energy landscape, and other threats to critical infrastructure. This guide will also assist in continual assessment of new policies and regulations designed to enhance energy system resilience.
- Guidebook: Federal Funding Opportunities for Pre- and Post-Disaster Resilience, November 2023
This guidebook helps utility regulators initiate and facilitate an informed conversation about risk-reduction or mitigation projects with their stakeholders. Each section has several educational components, including program summary, eligibility requirements, important deadlines, and key takeaways that tie each program to a utility commission’s priorities. Originally published in 2021, the guidebook has been updated to include new programs from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). For more in-depth information about each grant, utility regulators and stakeholders can look to the additional resources included at the end of each section.
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Resilience for Regulators #4: Exploring Cost Benefit Methodologies on Enhancing Grid Resilience
NARUC hosted a webinar exploring approaches for regulators to incorporate cost-benefit analysis into their decision-making adjudication processes for grid resilience investments. The discussion highlighted key aspects such as understanding resilience performance metrics, analyzing risk, and optimizing utility investments strategies to serve utility customers.
Moderator: Hon. Stacey Paradis, Commissioner, Illinois Commerce Commission
Panelist: Robert Jeffers, Strategic Resilience Advisor, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Recording, Presentations
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Resilience for Regulators #3: Advancing Equitable Community Resilience Through Stakeholder Engagement Strategies
Energy justice has emerged as a central tenet to utility distribution system planning and federal funding eligibility in the last few years. Public utility commissions across the U.S. have begun the process of implementing energy equity requirements as dictated by state legislative statute or regulation. Both meeting federal requirements for funding eligibility and incorporating equity into distribution system planning broadly require robust stakeholder engagement from impacted energy justice communities. This webinar explored how public utility commissions are developing those equity-driven stakeholder engagement strategies to enhance distribution system resilience. Panelists discussed how state requirements around energy justice have evolved and how impacted communities can make a difference in building a grid that meets the needs of all customers regardless of their circumstances.
Moderator: Commissioner Tom Plant, Colorado Public Utilities Commission
Panelists:
- Anna Brockway, Advisor – Climate Adaptation & Resilience Planning, SCE
- Martin Blagaich, Senior Advisor - Climate Adaptation & Resilience Planning, SCE
- Alok Bharati PhD, Power Systems Research Engineer, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
- Michelle Scala, Energy Justice Program Manager, Oregon Public Utilities Commission
Recording, Presentations
- Resilience for Regulators 2023 Webinar #1: Future Climate Modeling for Utility System Planning: Key Lessons for State Utility Regulators
The next installment in a webinar series ‘Resilience for Regulators’ that dives into various topics within the umbrella of energy resilience policy, this webinar featured speakers from ComEd and Argonne National Laboratory on incorporating climate data into utility system modeling to plan future investments. This webinar explored how climate modeling frameworks are incorporated into utility investment decision-making within ComEd’s service territory, and how Argonne National Laboratory’s advanced climate modeling can help utilities better understand and address future threats. State utility regulators can gain a better understanding of the types of climate-driven threats to the utilities they regulate, and how investment decisions will need to adapt with the changing climate. Recording, Presentations
- Resilience for Regulators 2023 Webinar #2: Climate Mitigation Strategies for Coastal and Urban Flooding
The next installment in a webinar series ‘Resilience for Regulators’ that dives into various topics within the umbrella of energy resilience policy, this webinar featured speakers from FEMA, the Florida Public Service Commission, and the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities on available federal funding and state public utility commission strategies to mitigate impacts from flooding. Panelists discussed how investor-owned utilities and state policies consider updated climate mitigation strategies, informed by climate modeling analysis or innovative technologies, that can be beneficial to address this specific risk. This webinar also explored different regulatory mechanisms that commissions may consider implementing as an incentive to reduce flooding risk as well as how public utility commissions are assessing climate vulnerabilities in regulated utility proposals.Recording
- Resilience for Regulators Webinar #1: Climate Resilience Frameworks to Improve Risk Management: Exploring Lessons Learned from NC, January 2022
The first in a webinar series ‘Resilience for Regulators’ dives into various topics within the umbrella of energy resilience policy. This webinar featured speakers from North Carolina who talked about the North Carolina Climate Risk Assessment and Resilience Plan and highighted their implementation experiences. Recording, Presentations
- Resilience for Regulators Webinar #2: Building Transmission Infrastructure for a Resilient Energy Future, May 2022
The second in a webinar series ‘Resilience for Regulators’ that dives into various topics within the umbrella of energy resilience policy, this webinar featured speakers from ACORE, DOE, and WIRES on the opportunity for transmission to enhance grid resilience. Recording
- Resilience for Regulators Webinar #3: How Important is Energy Storage to Withstand Extreme Weather Events?, September 2022
The third in NARUC's webinar series ‘Resilience for Regulators’ this webinar featured speakers from American Clean Power Association, EPRI, and DNV Energy on how energy storage assets can be used to withstand extreme weather events. Recording
- Regulatory Considerations for Utility Investments in Defense Energy Resilience, February 2022
Building on NARUC's recent white paper Regulatory Considerations for Utility Investments in Energy Resilience, this webinar details the concept of defense energy resilience, the Department of Energy’s defense critical electric infrastructure program (DCEI) and opportunities to enhance productive partnerships among state utility regulators, utilities and critical facilities. Speakers highlight the success of existing defense energy resilience projects in Hawaii as an exemplary model for other states to consider.
- Defense Community Priorities on Energy Resilience and Opportunities for State Regulatory Partnership, March 2022
This webinar will feature several defense community leaders describing the strategic priorities of the armed forces and DoD regarding energy security. State public utility regulators should work closely with their regulated utilities and defense community customers to identify critical assets, develop collaborative partnerships, and enhance grid resilience vital to our national defense interests.
- Advancing Electric System Resilience with Distributed Energy Resources: A Review of State Policies, April 2020
Utility regulators and other stakeholders need to improve their understanding of resilience and how distributed energy resources can facilitate recovery from disruptions and threats. This report addresses the role of state regulators in electricity system resilience, the relationship of distributed energy resources to resilience, and how states can implement policies to expand DER deployment to improve resilience.
- Advancing Electric System Resilience with Distributed Energy Resources: Key Questions and Resources, April 2020
As a companion piece to Advancing Electric System Resilience with Distributed Energy Resources: A Review of State Policies, this publication provides a foundation for state public utility commissions to frame how they review proposed utility investments that could offer resilience benefits and includes a list of relevant resources to improve regulators' ability to oversee resilience investments and obtain better outcomes for customers.
- The Value of Resilience for Distributed Energy Resources: An Overview of Current Analytical Practices, April 2019
Planning for long-duration power interruptions caused by high-impact, low-probability events requires new approaches to power system resilience above and beyond previous hardening efforts. This report examines both regulatory decision-making and non-regulatory cost-benefit analyses to determine if, and how, a value of energy resilience was calculated and applied to proposed investments. Four criteria were used to evaluate the methodologies, including the method’s ease of use, scope of outputs, geographic scalability, and power interruption duration analysis capability. Some of the valuation methodologies examined in the report may be useful in regulatory decision-making; however, none of the methods reviewed met all four criteria for regulator usefulness and usability, and no single method is capable of capturing all regulatory concerns regarding the resilience value of DERs.
Central Regional Training on Distribution System Planning and Resilience, March 20 – 21, 2024
The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, National Association of State Energy Officials, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory invite public utility commissions, state energy offices, and utility consumer advocates to participate in a training on distribution system planning and resilience in Nashville, Tennessee on March 20 and 21, 2024. This is a repeated training with the same content at the November 2023 and January 2024 distribution system planning and resilience trainings.
Draft Agendas:
Day 1 - Integrated Distribution System Planning
- Understanding planning objectives, roles and responsibilities, and process
- Developing load forecasting — including electrification and extreme weather impacts
- Planning for distributed energy resources
- Identifying grid needs and evaluating investment options
- Reviewing utility distribution plan filings
- Recovering and allocating costs
Day 2 - Resilience Planning
- Introduction to resilience for electricity systems
- Examining example resilience plans and templates
- Engaging stakeholders and addressing equity
- Identifying threats, predicting vulnerabilities, and assessing risks
- Developing mitigation and rapid restoration strategies
- Reviewing strategies for valuing and prioritizing investments
- Identifying criteria for evaluating resilience projects
Limited travel stipends are available upon request.
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Western Regional Training on Distribution System Planning and Resilience, January 24 – 25, 2024
The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, National Association of State Energy Officials, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory invite Eastern public utility commissions, state energy offices, and utility consumer advocates to participate in a training on distribution system planning and resilience in Irvine, California on January 24 & 25, 2024. This is a repeated training with the same content at the November 2023 distribution system planning and resilience training.
Agendas
Day 1 Distribution Presentations
Day 2 Resilience Presentations
Speaker Bios
Save the date: To make this training broadly available for all members, it will be repeated in Tennessee in March 2024. Please choose the training that works best for you.
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Eastern Regional Training on Distribution System Planning and Resilience, November 29 – 30, 2023
The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, National Association of State Energy Officials, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory hosted Eastern public utility commissions, state energy offices, and utility consumer advocates to participate in a training on distribution system planning and resilience in Washington, D.C., on November 29 – 30, 2023.
Agendas
Presentation Slides
Speaker Bios
- DOE-NARUC Regulating for Resilience Workshop, San Antonio, TX, November 20, 2019
As states, utilities, and other stakeholders seek to reduce the consequences of disruptions to the electric power sector from threats such as severe weather, cyber-attacks, and accidents, the need for regulators to consider how resilience can be properly internalized is coming into sharp focus. States, utilities, municipalities, and customers are increasingly taking steps to improve our communities’ resilience yet are doing so without the benefit of an established, clear and comprehensive set of planning considerations for grid resilience. Objectives for this workshop include: (1) to present and discuss work to date on overcoming critical barriers to development of a structured resilience framework; and (2) to explore commission experiences and needs related to important resilience topics. Summary forthcoming
- PJM-NARUC Joint Stakeholder Workshop: How Can Distributed Energy Resources Advance System Resilience? Orlando, FL, November 14, 2018
NARUC is grateful for funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Solar Energy Technologies Office and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) through the Solar Energy Innovation Network (SEIN), DOE Office of Electricity, DOE Office of Grid Deployment (GDO), and DOE Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Resilience (CESER) which have enabled the resources and activities described on this webpage.