FERC Schedules Nov. 19-20 Demand Response Technical Conference

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has released its discussion draft report on possible components of its demand response national action plan and scheduled a technical conference to discuss it for Nov. 19-20 in Washington, D.C.

However, anyone interested in addressing the conference will need to move fast. Those interested in speaking must fill out an online form describing what they intend to address by Friday, Nov. 6.

Written comments on the draft and conference discussions must be submitted by Dec. 4, 2009.

FERC was mandated by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 to develop a demand response national action plan with three primary objectives. Those directives are:

·         Identification of requirements for technical assistance to states to allow them to maximize the amount of demand response resources that can be developed and deployed.

·         Design and identification of requirements for implementation of a national communications program that includes broad‐based customer education and support.

·         Development or identification of analytical tools, information, model regulatory provisions, model contracts, and other support materials for use by customers, states, utilities and demand response providers.

Technical conferences on the discussion draft originally scheduled for October were postponed because of scheduling conflicts.

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   Conference notice (pdf)

   Discussion draft (pdf)