The National Council on Electricity Policy has been convening state officials and staff in 50 states since 1994, representing state utility commissioners, energy directors, legislators, air agency officials, consumer advocates, their staff, and others working on power sector interests. Since 2018, NCEP has examined the evolution of the transmission and distribution systems at their interface.

Mission and Values

A set of Guiding Principles guide NCEP in its purpose, administration, mission, and values. NCEP’s Mission is to:

• Provide information and technical assistance to states, regions, and multiple stakeholders and policymakers
• Improve understanding of electricity technologies, markets, programs, and policies
• Support the deployment of reliable, clean, and reasonably priced electricity improve interstate and intrastate coordination on electricity issues

In addition, NCEP adheres to the following values when conducting activities and developing resources:

• Objectivity: ensuring all efforts are balanced, credible, and fact-based without a partisan, ideological, or business-driven agenda.
• Diversity: maintaining organizational diversity in composition (e.g., state electricity office represented, political affiliation), professional background (e.g., law, economics, engineering), and geography.
• Collaboration: collaborating internally and externally in order to deeply explore topics.
• Engagement: engaging state decision-makers through a combination of in-person and virtual events.

Leadership

NCEP is led by a seventeen-person Executive Committee representing five regions and six types of state agencies. 

NCEP is an initiative facilitated by the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners through the Center for Partnerships & Innovation. NCEP thanks the U.S. Department of Energy for its support.

NCEP hosts webinars and annual meetings to bring state officials, regional system operators, and industry leaders together to discuss current trends in planning, operating, and managing electricity systems at the distribution and transmission system interface. NCEP offers three types of webinars: (1) coordination webinars to support member collaboration across the states’ national associations and provide updates on resources and events, (2) webinars that highlight resources available to members from DOE and the National Laboratories, (3) topical webinars and virtual trainings. 

Upcoming Events

Recent Meetings and Webinars

• National Council on Electricity Policy Member Updates
  NCEP Member Updates provide virtual updates on recent and future activities and resources of the NCEP member organizations, including NASEO, NGA, NCSL, NACAA, NASUCA, and NARUC. These organizations represent the broad spectrum of decision makers impacting policy and implementation decisions related to the provision of electricity and the electric grid. See below for a recording of recent updates and the presentation slides to learn more about the latest resources and events across the six organizations.
  • February 2023 Member Update Recording and Slides, February 24, 2023
  • July 2022 Member Update Recording and Slides, July 29, 2022
  • January 2022 Member Update Recording and Slides, January 13, 2022
  • June 2021 Member Update Recording and Slides, June 8, 2021
  • January 2021 Member Update Recording and Slides, January 26, 2021

• U.S. Department of Energy Regional Initiatives, November 29, 2021
  The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has launched a new Regional Specialists initiative within the Intergovernmental Affairs Office. The specialists will build strong relationships with state energy officials, municipal officials, tribes, regional associations, and other external stakeholders to advance the Biden-Harris Administration’s climate and clean energy goals. The webinar will be followed by Regional Listening Sessions between December 6 to December 14, 2021, where state officials can learn more about plans for their region and engage in conversation with their region’s specialist. To join, send your name, organization, email address, and region to RegionalMeetings@cleanegroup.org.

• Innovations in Electricity Modeling Training Series, October -- November 2021
  NCEP and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory offered training on innovations in electricity system modeling, in partnership with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Participants learned:
  • What modeling tools and methods are available to plan distribution and bulk power systems with distributed energy resources (DERs), including comprehensive planning approaches.
  • How utilities analyze utility-scale and distributed storage in integrated resource planning, ways state officials can review the analysis, and how to improve evaluation of storage in planning.
  • How to assess technical and economic impacts of DERs for distribution and bulk power systems, and what changes are needed in load forecasting, potential assessments, and modeling to treat energy efficiency and demand response on a comparable basis to other resources during planning.
  • Ways to improve planning throughout the electricity system in the face of climate change.

Presentations and recordings are available.

• NCEP Annual Meeting 2021 – Coordinated Electricity Planning , September 13 – 15, 2021
  In 2021, the NCEP community explored developments in modern electricity planning techniques and tools to align planning processes across distribution, resource, and transmission planning.
• Webinar: Approaches to Maximizing Existing Transmission Capacity, August 3, 2021
  This webinar featured a discussion of opportunities to maximize existing transmission line throughput as a near-term complement to planning for and building new transmission.

To be added to our listserv, please make a profile through the MYNARUC web portal and subscribe to the NCEP listserv.

Contact us with any questions about NCEP:

Sarah Fitzpatrick, Technical and Policy Advisor

Jessica Diaz, Program Coordinator