On May 1, Appalachian Power Company (“APCo”) will file its 2019 Integrated Resource Plan (“IRP”) with the State Corporation Commission. The May 1 filing for APCo is a result of the Grid Transformation and Security Act, SB 966 (2018) (the “GTSA”), which amended Va. Code § 56-599 to require each electric utility to file an updated integrated resource plan by May 1 “in each year immediately preceding the year the utility is subject to a triennial review filing.” That triennial review was also amended in the bill, which set it for APCo in 2020, thus the IRP this May. See Code 56-585.1(A)(1) as amended.
APCo last filed an IRP in May 2018, after the passage of the GTSA but prior to its effective date. Case No. PUR-2018-00051. The Commission found the APCo IRP “reasonable and in the public interest for the specific and limited purpose of filing the planning document as mandated by § 56-597 et seq. of the Code.”
The Commission’s order also observed that it had directed APCo to include detailed plans to implement the mandates contained in the GTSA. The Commission found that APCo “failed to include a plan to comply with the mandate regarding energy efficiency programs set forth in Enactment Clause 15 of Senate Bill 966. The Commission therefore directs APCo to include in its next IRP detailed plans to implement the mandates contained in Senate Bill 966 including but not limited to the statute’s mandate that APCo develop a proposed program of energy conservation measures of no less than an aggregate amount of $140 million for the period beginning July 1, 2018, and ending July 1, 2028.”
Stay tuned for the May 1 filing, and do not hesitate to call one of our attorneys if you have any questions about the IRP process in Virginia.