Brattle Experts Contribute to NARUC Natural Gas Distribution Planning Roadmaps
Brattle experts contributed to a set of four related reports that were developed by the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) Task Force on Natural Gas Resource Planning. The reports – addressing the topics of affordability, reliability, clean energy, and economic development – serve as stylized “roadmaps” to guide public utility commissions and utilities in natural gas distribution planning efforts that must deal with these respective topics.
The roadmaps are the result of two years of collaborative efforts by the NARUC Task Force, which formed cohorts for each of the four topic areas covered in the roadmaps. Each roadmap was designed with the objective of enhancing state utility regulators’ ability to guide a planning process that will ensure reliable, affordable, and safe natural gas service, focusing on issues related to the respective roadmap topics.
Each roadmap conceptualizes high-level steps in a hypothetical planning process that can guide any public utility commission. Each discusses the following items:
- Information needs: What information the commission needs from regulated utilities and/or stakeholders to arrive at a decision grounded in evidence.
- Process and participants: How the commission engages regulated utilities and stakeholders in each phase of planning and in what forum(s) planning discussions will take place.
- Outputs to take into next steps: The final product of each step is necessary to inform and enable subsequent parts of the process.
Principal Dean Murphy, Senior Associate Josh Figueroa, Managing Energy Associate Long Lam, and Senior Energy Associate Ragini Sreenath contributed to the NARUC roadmaps, which are available below.
