Providing Michigan residents and businesses with the demand-side technologies, programs, and price signals that will allow these customers to be more active and effective participants in the state's transition to increased clean and distributed energy resources.
In order to maximize the value of clean and distributed energy resources for customers, significant attention needs to be given to educating and facilitating customer participation and access to new demand-side technologies, energy waste reduction programs, demand response offerings, time-based pricing and other related programs. Customer Education and Participation also includes Data Access and Privacy, which will focus on the customer's need to access and share energy usage information while maintaining privacy safeguards.
Customers enrolled in demand response programs may be called upon to shift electricity consumption away from times of peak usage when electricity costs more to produce. These customers benefit through a lower rate. Demand response can also be a useful tool to avoid emergency situations where customer usage is expected to exceed available generation supply.
Utility companies use pilot projects to test new or experimental ideas. This helps utilities, stakeholders, and the MPSC learn what may work on a larger scale, as well as where to improve. Past pilot projects have involved energy waste reduction, electric vehicles, advanced metering infrastructure, and rates that vary based on when electricity is used. Having a standard process to evaluate pilot projects can help the MPSC and stakeholders decide whether expanding these programs is beneficial to customers.
The cost to produce electricity changes depending on the time of day, week, and year. It costs more to produce electricity on a hot summer weekday, when businesses are open and customers are using air conditioning, than it does on a cool spring weekend, when many businesses are closed and temperatures are moderate. Time-based pricing aligns utility rates with the cost to produce electricity at different times.
Customer-owned generation and energy storage are changing the way customers use the grid. This workgroup will explore various rate design options for addressing this change.
Electric utilities are required to offer customers the ability to have some or all of their electricity generated from renewable energy. Voluntary Green Pricing tariffs spell out the rates and terms of service for these programs.
