Reg Lab
A community to catalyze energy solutions.
RMI's Regulatory Collaborative ('Reg Lab') is a cohort-style initiative that builds regulatory staff capacity and develops cutting-edge solutions to today’s pressing issues. RMI is convening a peer network of Public Utility Commission (PUC) staff to test ideas, advance thought leadership, and tackle emerging issues.
Peer-to-Peer
Practical Support
Best Practices
Be a Part of Reg Lab's Fourth Cohort: Advancing Effective Customer Affordability Programs
Rising energy costs are driving an affordability crisis across states, exposing gaps in existing policy supports – particularly for fixed-income, low-income, and other vulnerable customers., for whom higher bills can create severe financial strain and safety risks. Today, one in three households report forgoing basic necessities such as food or medicine in order to pay their energy bills, and one in six households are behind on their energy bills.
In response to these challenges, Cohort 4 will focus on advancing effective affordability programs that help customers pay their bills and prevent disconnections. This includes policies such as percentage-of-income payment plans, bill discount programs, bill credits, arrearage management, targeted energy efficiency, and disconnection protections. While commissions are becoming more empowered or directed to develop or refine these policies, many complex questions remain around authority, funding, and cost recovery; program expansion; and how to evaluate long-term affordability outcomes.
Over the course of the Cohort, participants will:
- Examine energy burden metrics and trends within their jurisdictions, and review policy strategies that can help address key aspects of energy affordability.
- Identify practical actions commission staff can take to design, assess, or refine customer affordability programs, with an emphasis on strengthening and sustaining affordability protections over time.
RMI will provide technical support to participants on their state-specific context in addition to Cohort workshops, which may include research, facilitated discussions, or one-on-one support.
To express interest in Reg Lab Cohort 4, please fill out this form or email Carina Rosenbach (CRosenbach@rmi.org).
The Collaborative is free.
About six months, meeting every three to four weeks.
The meetings will be virtual.
Once you participate in a cohort, you’ll be a part of the alumni network with access to in-person networking, insights on emerging energy topics, and Collaborative tools and resources.
We’re inviting up to three staff members from each commission to join the cohort and participate in all workshops. Staff participants can also invite their colleagues to relevant sessions on an ad hoc basis.
Cohort 1: The IRA and Resource Planning (NEW Toolkit Now Available)
In 2023, staff from 13 states where utilities conduct integrated resource planning came together to explore the cutting edge of planning and federal funding. Over the course of this first cohort, staff learned directly from 17 expert faculty, developed rich questions to evaluate if and how plans incorporate the benefits of available funding, and shared challenges and emerging best practices across their jurisdictions.
RMI is thrilled to share the resulting toolkit: Planning to Harness the Inflation Reduction Act. This toolkit, informed by the discussions in Cohort 1, captures action-oriented insights and recommendations for ensuring that resource plans optimize federal funding to benefit ratepayers. It includes:
- Clear benchmarks and examples of how to adjust IRPs to optimize available federal funding.
- Detailed actions regulators can take to enable utilities to plan in a manner that maximizes the savings for ratepayers from federal funding.
- Specific questions PUCs and stakeholders can ask to better understand the utility’s approach to optimizing the IRA’s opportunities.
This toolkit is intended to support regulators in all states with resource planning practices. You can access the toolkit here.
In 2024, staff from 15 states joined with industry experts to discuss key drivers of load growth in each jurisdiction and evaluate different near-term responses to address them. The resulting report covers the most upstream option: Improving load forecasting.
Get a Load of This is a resource designed for regulators who wish to understand the current landscape of large load forecasting and explore options for how to evolve forecasting practices as large loads emerge in their jurisdictions.
Specifically, the report includes:
- Deep dives into different large load drivers and their unique characteristics that affect the grid.
- Concise best practices for load forecasting and case studies explaining how three utilities are forecasting large loads today.
- Actions that regulators can take to improve on load forecasts that may be limited, outdated, and opaque today.
- Discovery-ready questions that regulators can leverage to ensure utilities are using robust large load forecasting practices.
We hope these insights and examples empower commission staff across the nation to navigate possibly the first period of load growth during their careers, but likely not their last. You can access the report here.
Growing a Thriving Alumni Network
And this is only the beginning. Once you join Reg Lab, the benefits keep building.
The increasingly complex work of regulators won’t be slowing down in the coming years — and neither will Reg Lab.
Our alumni network has access to the collected resources of each cohort topic area, ongoing guidance and technical support, and a trusted space to work through the implications of their work. You’ll find a wealth of knowledge that you can contribute to and pass on, for regulatory cohorts to come.