Topic:"Rate Design" in M12177

Pillar 2: Enabling DER Participation This pillar focuses on creating the conditions that allow customers and third parties to adopt and participate in DER programs. Priorities include customer engagement, equity considerations, enabling te...

AI summary Pillar 2 focuses on enabling distributed energy resource (DER) participation by creating conditions for customer and third-party engagement, addressing equity, enabling technologies, demand response, time-varying rates, and future DER compensation and procurement frameworks.

Advanced Distribution Management Systems (ADMS) Advanced Metering infrastructure (AMI) Behind the Meter (BTM) Benefit Cost Analysis (BCA) Critical Peak Pricing (CPP) Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) Distributed Energy Resources Integrat...

AI summary The text lists various terms and acronyms related to energy management, grid technologies, and regulatory frameworks in Nova Scotia, including advanced metering, distribution systems, and demand-side management initiatives.

Net Metering Report (M12165) and 2025 Commercial Net Metering Report (M12164) 3 Nova Scotia Power. 2026. 2026 Load Forecast Report. 4 Nova Scotia Power. 2025. 2025 [10-Year System Outlook.](https://www.nspower.ca/docs/default-source/monthl...

AI summary NS Power and EfficiencyOne have implemented initiatives such as AMI and time-varying rates to support DER integration. The SGNS project tested a DERMS to coordinate DERs, demonstrating benefits for affordability, reliability, and environmental compliance, and emphasizing collaboration between E1 and NS Power.

Qualitative Assessment Criteria Assessment Rationale Strategic Fit ●●● HIGH Enhanced DER forecasting and analysis supports planning for capacity, reliability, and DER integration. It aligns with current provincial climate goals and grid mo...

AI summary The qualitative assessment highlights the strategic fit and benefits of enhanced DER forecasting and analysis. It supports planning for capacity, reliability, and DER integration, aligns with provincial climate goals, and can improve distribution planning, reliability, and operational efficiencies while advancing decarbonization and economic objectives.

Overview This strategy does not propose bypassing established legislative and regulatory processes. Instead, it recognizes that as the electricity system and DER landscape evolve, policy and regulatory frameworks in Nova Scotia may also ne...

AI summary This strategy emphasizes the need for regulatory adaptation to support DER innovation and flexible utility planning. Stakeholders stress the importance of regulatory oversight at all stages, express concerns about delays from slow processes, and raise questions about alignment with ongoing NSEB proceedings and affordability.

Overview There are multiple ways to enable customer DER adoption and participation. Some are better suited to specific DER technologies or customer use cases, and in many cases the most effective approach is a combination of mechanisms. Ju...

AI summary The document emphasizes the need for coordinated strategies to enable customer adoption of DER technologies, highlighting affordability, funding, and cost allocation as key considerations. Stakeholders stress the importance of aligned branding, messaging, and backend coordination between NS Power and E1 to avoid conflicting programs and ensure a seamless customer experience. Suggestions include using pilot programs, adopting common evaluation models, and aligning incentive structures with grid needs.

Roadmap Initiatives 2 2 1 Equipment Incentive Programs FOUNDATIONAL Nova Scotia Context E1 currently offers incentives for smart thermostats, heat pump water heaters, heat pumps, and EV chargers for MURBs. Residential customers with eligib...

AI summary E1 provides various incentive programs in Nova Scotia, including for smart thermostats, heat pumps, and EV chargers, with automatic enrollment in the Eco Shift DR program. Other jurisdictions, like Vermont, link incentives to participation in time-varying rate and demand response programs, such as offering free EV chargers and battery rebates.

Qualitative Assessment of Demand Response Programs Criteria Assessment Rationale Strategic Fit ●●● HIGH DR programs are aligned with broader grid modernization and electrification objectives and allow Nova Scotia to build on existing knowl...

AI summary The qualitative assessment highlights that demand response (DR) programs in Nova Scotia are strategically aligned with grid modernization and electrification goals. They provide benefits such as peak shaving and emission reductions, but their success depends on customer participation and DERMS integration. While DR programs are cost-favorable and require limited infrastructure investment, risks include underperformance and loss of stakeholder confidence if not properly managed.

Qualitative Assessment of Compensation Frameworks Criteria Assessment Rationale Strategic Fit ● LOW DER compensation frameworks involve a high degree of coordination. Adjustments to the existing compensation framework will require careful...

AI summary The qualitative assessment evaluates DER compensation frameworks, noting that while they offer benefits like clear price signals, they require stakeholder collaboration, may involve administrative and IT costs, and must align with legislative parameters to manage risks effectively.

Overview This strategy aims to assess how alternative procurement pathways may complement customer programs to accelerate DER uptake in Nova Scotia, help reduce the cost of resource acquisition, promote operational efficiency, and foster c...

AI summary The strategy discusses alternative procurement pathways for DERs in Nova Scotia, comparing centralized procurement and utility ownership models. Stakeholders expressed concerns about transparency, the necessity of centralized models, and the alignment of utility ownership with provincial goals for competition and innovation.

Qualitative Assessment for Grid Interconnection Criteria Assessment Rationale Description Interconnection procedures should be reviewed regularly. During these reviews, opportunities to modernize should be examined. Examples of modernizati...

AI summary The document discusses the need to regularly review and modernize interconnection procedures, with examples such as automation, data requirements, and flexible hosting capacity agreements. It notes that Nova Scotia Power has initiated improvements through an interconnection process review and that the province has updated its net-metering framework to support customer DER interconnections.

Enabling Strategies - Rates: Time-varying rates such as time of use and critical peak pricing (sometimes specific to equipment like EV specific TOU rate), and net-metering for distributed solar - Programs: Demand response programs such as...

AI summary The document outlines enabling strategies for integrating distributed energy resources (DER) into the grid, including time-varying rates, demand response programs, competitive procurement processes, utility-owned DERs, and value-based compensation mechanisms for DERs.

NSPI's Progress - 2020 IRP completed with annual action plan updates. - IRP set a target of 75 MW of DR capacity by 2035 and modelled DERs - DR programs including smart thermostats, EV chargers, BESS - TVR programs (TOU, CPP, TOD rate) - U...

AI summary NSPI has completed its 2020 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) with annual action plan updates, targeting 75 MW of demand response (DR) capacity by 2035. The plan includes DR programs such as smart thermostats, EV chargers, and battery energy storage systems (BESS), as well as time-varying rate (TVR) programs like TOU, CPP, and TOD rates. NSPI has also implemented AMI and piloted DERMs through SGNS, and established a utility-owned community solar garden in Amherst.

Enabling Strategies - Rates: Time of day rate with an off-peak, mid-peak, and on-peak rate; net-metering for solar - Programs: Peak time rebate program is a behavioural DR program with an award of $1/kWh reduced; direct load control (DLC)...

AI summary The text outlines enabling strategies related to energy management, including time-of-day rates, peak time rebate programs, direct load control, and procurement of distributed solar with storage. It also discusses co-deployment efforts between PGE and Energy Trust Oregon to serve high energy burdened customers.

Spotlight: Highlights from Hawaiian Electric Company's (HECO) Customer Energy Resource Strategy HECO's Customer Energy Resource (CER) strategy centers around three "Cs" that are enabled through three "Ps": - Choice : Customers chose which...

AI summary HECO's Customer Energy Resource (CER) strategy focuses on choice, coordination, and collaboration, offering various rate designs, demand response programs, and procurement processes. The strategy emphasizes grid modernization and integrated grid planning, with investments in DERMS, AMI, and ADMS, and efforts to define advanced inverter interconnection standards.

September 26, 2025 Crystal Henwood Clerk of the Board Nova Scotia Energy Board 1601 Lower Water Street, 3rd Floor Halifax, NS B3J 3S3 Re: M12177 – Distributed Energy Resource (DER) Integration Roadmap Report Update Dear Ms. Henwood: In its...

AI summary The Nova Scotia Energy Board directed NS Power to submit a DER Integration Roadmap report by September 30, 2025, following a series of procedural updates and stakeholder engagement activities. NS Power has engaged a third-party consultant and plans to hold stakeholder sessions from May to July 2025.

Stakeholder Engagement Round 1 Targeted interviews and the first stakeholder workshop were used to share the DERIR context, scope, and process; gather preliminary stakeholder input and alignment on preliminary DERIR goals, objectives and g...

AI summary Stakeholder Engagement Round 1 involved targeted interviews and a workshop to discuss the DERIR's context, scope, and process. Stakeholders provided input on goals, objectives, and potential initiatives like rate design and demand response programs. No major changes to DERIR goals are anticipated based on initial feedback.

DERIR Scope and Preliminary Goals, Objectives and Guiding Principles The scope of the DERIR initiative, as developed in the framework and discussed with stakeholders, includes the following: - Technologies (behind the meter and distributio...

AI summary The DERIR initiative focuses on integrating distributed energy resources, covering technologies like solar PV and battery storage, customer segments, commercial pathways, enabling infrastructure, use cases, and internal/external processes. Preliminary goals and guiding principles are outlined, subject to change after further stakeholder engagement.