There has recently been a fair amount of public utility commission activity around standby rates and their impact on the deployment of distributed energy resources, such as combined heat and power (CHP). From 2014 to 2019, interest in CHP has increased across a number of states. Many Midwestern states have among the highest technical potential for CHP in the country, and interest has been particularly high in those states. This has led to a range of opportunities for stakeholders to examine utility standby tariffs. Throughout these discussions, there has been keen interest in evaluating how best to revise utility tariffs in order to achieve fair and just standby rates going forward.
Jamie Scripps, a principal with Hunterston Consulting LLC, authored a new paper that provides a useful update on “Where Things Stands on Standby Rates.” It is available for download here: