Settled/Closed Dockets

UD-20-02: 2021 Triennial Integrated Resource Plan Of Entergy New Orleans

Council Docket UD-20-02, established via Resolution R-20-257, initiated the triennial Integrated Resource Plan (“IRP”).  Every three years Entergy New Orleans (ENO) IRP is produced.  This is the planning process by which Entergy assesses the resources available to meet the power supply needs of New Orleans.  The IRP is produced following an open, transparent planning process through which all relevant resources are investigated.  Resources considered include supply-side (such as power plants, including both conventional and renewable sources of power) and demand-side (programs to modify customer loads to reduce or shift loads from hours with high electricity costs or reliability constraints to other hours, such as demand response programs, the Energy Smart energy efficiency program, and energy storage).  The factors influencing choice among these resources are considered in the planning process.  The goal is to identify the optimal set of resources to meet current and future electric service needs at the lowest total cost to customers and ENO, in a manner consistent with the long-run public interest and the Council’s energy policy goals.  The expected combination of costs, reliability, risks and uncertainty are all considered.

Pertinent docket deadline dates are/were as follows: 

• August 20, 2020 – May 25, 2022 – Formal discovery shall run from the issuance of this Resolution through May 25, 2020.  Responses to data requests shall be made on a rolling basis and shall be due within 15 calendar days of receipt. 
   
• October 16, 2020 – Initial public meeting shall be held on or before October 16, 2020.  The Council Utilities Regulatory Office shall have a sign-up sheet for Interested Persons, as defined in Section 2(A)(9) of the IRP Rules, present at the public meeting, however, members of the public interested in becoming an Interested Person may do so at any time throughout the IRP proceeding by making a request to CURO.  The meeting shall be scheduled by CURO in the Council Chambers with video recording, and a court reporter;
   
• November 2, 2020 – Interested Parties may intervene in the IRP case by November 2, 2020;
   
• November 30, 2020 – Technical Meeting 1 of the Parties, CURO, and Advisors shall be held between November 30, 2020 and December 11, 2020.  The purpose of this meeting will be to discuss planning scenarios and strategies;
   
• February 19, 2021 – On February 19, 2021, the Council Advisors filed Advisors’ Motion to Extend Procedural Deadlines to extend certain procedural deadlines in the 2021 Integrated Resource Plan as a result of Council’s January 28, 2021 adoption of Motion M-21-34 authorizing the President of the Council to hire GDS Associates, Inc. as its independent Demand-Side Management (“DSM”) Consultant.
   
• February 25, 2021 – The Council adopted Resolution R-21-73 granting Advisors’ Motion to Extend Procedural Deadlines and to extend the deadline for the 2021 IRP Report to March 25, 2022.
   
• March 26, 2021 – The Council’s Technical and Legal Advisors, the Council Utilities Regulatory Office (“CURO”), GDS Associates, Inc., Entergy New Orleans (“ENO”), and Intervenors conducted a telephone conference to discuss and finalize a modified procedural schedule for this docket.
   
• April 7, 2021 – Hearing Officer, Maria Auzenne, approved the parties’ modified procedural schedule for the 2021 Triennial Integrated Resource Plan as follows:
   
• April 29, 2021 – Technical Meeting 2 of the Parties, CURO, and Advisors shall be held.  The purpose of this meeting is to either confirm a consensus regarding the proposed planning scenarios or to confirm that ENO is prepared to include a Stakeholder planning scenario;
   
• May 24, 2021 – Finalize Scenarios and non-DSM Inputs.
   
• June 15, 2021 – Demand-Side Management (“DSM”) Achievable Cases and Benchmarking will be circulated to the Service List. 
   
• July 30, 2021 – DSM Potential Studies to be submitted in this proceeding shall be completed by July 30, 2021.  The Council expects Intervenors and Council Advisors will participate in the concurrent development of inputs and assumptions for the DSM Potential Study in collaboration with ENO.  The completed DSM Potential Studies shall be circulated to all Parties; 
   
• August 12, 2021 – Technical Meeting 3 of the Parties, CURO, and Advisors shall be held to finalize the planning scenarios and planning strategies by all parties and lock down all of the IRP inputs.  The results of the DSM potential studies will be provided in the input format required for modeling in the IRP.  This meeting will also contain the initial discussion of scorecard metrics; 
   
• August 15, 2021 – Deadline for new Council policies that can be incorporated in Strategies. 
   
• August 15, 2021 – Finalize all Integrated Resource Plan (“IRP”) inputs; 
   
• December 21, 2021 – Completion of optimized portfolio development and results.  Deadline for ENO to complete all optimized portfolio development and results.  The resulting optimized portfolios and supporting work-papers shall be circulated to the Parties;
   
• January 19, 2022  – Technical Meeting 4.  The purpose of this meeting is to review the Optimized Resource Portfolios, finalize the Scorecard Metrics, and conduct an initial discussion regarding Energy Smart Program budgets and savings goals.  For this meeting, ENO should prepare initial proposed Energy Smart Program budgets and savings goals for discussion;
   
• March 25, 2022 – 2021 IRP Report filed.
   
• April 13, 2022 – Second Public Meeting.  ENO shall present the IRP Filing to the public and receive public comment.  ENO shall have a portal on its website for questions and comments to be submitted over a 15-day period, ENO must respond to each question on a rolling 10-day basis.  Intervenors are encouraged to submit any questions to ENO during this period as well; The meeting shall be scheduled by CURO in the Council Chambers with video recording, and a court reporter;
   
• May 3, 2022 – Third Public Meeting (Council receives public comments).  Interested members of the public are invited to make a two-minute statement to the Council on the record regarding their opinions on the IRP. The meeting shall be scheduled by CURO in the Council Chambers with video recording, and a court reporter;
   
• April 29 – May 6, 2022 – Technical Meeting 5.  The purpose of this meeting is to discuss Energy Smart implementation for Program Years 13-15 (2023-2025). 
   
• May 9, 2022 – Intervenor Comments on Final IRP. 
   
• June 7, 2022 – ENO Reply Comments. 
   
• June 27, 2022 – Discovery closes.
   
• July 12, 2022 – Advisor Report.
   
• July 19, 2022 – Energy Smart Implementation Plan Filing for Program Year 13 – 15 (2023 – 2025) due, with details of the Energy Smart program design.  Further procedural deadlines related to the Energy Smart Implementation Filing will be set in a future resolution.
   
• September 15, 2022 – The Council adopted Resolution R-22-412 establishing a procedural schedule regarding ENO’s Energy Smart Implementation Plan for Program Years 13-15 (January 2023-December 2025).  
   
• ​September 30, 2022 – Comments on Program Years 13-15 Energy Smart Implementation Plan due.  The comments should address i) whether the Implementation Plan should be approved for all subject program years or some subset thereof; ii) which programs, if any, should customers be automatically enrolled; (iii) which programs, if any, should be eliminated, reduced, or expanded. 
   
• October 14, 2022 – Reply comments due from all parties regarding ENO’s Program Years 13-15 Energy Smart Implementation Plan (Program Years 2023 – 2025);
   
• November 14, 2022 – Hearing Officer, Judge Maria Auzenne, issued an Order dated November 14, 2022 granting Intervenor, Alliance for Affordable Energy’s Motion to File Comments out of Time and amending the procedural schedule to allow parties to file reply comments to the Alliance for Affordable Energy’s Comments;
   
• November 23, 2022 – Reply comments due relative to Intervenor, Alliance for Affordable Energy’s comments regarding ENO’s Program Years 13-15 Energy Smart Implementation Plan (Program Years 2023 – 2025);
   
• December 12, 2022 – Judge Maria Auzenne issued an Order certifying the Evidentiary Record in Council Docket UD-20-02 (2021 IRP);
   
• December 15, 2022 – Per Resolution R-22-523, the Council approved ENO’s Energy Smart Implementation Plan for Program Years 13 and 14 (“PY 13-14/2023-2024”); however, in order to preserve the flexibility of the outcome of Council Docket UD-22-04 (“Rulemaking for Savings Target and Program Design for EE, Conservation, DR, DSM, DERs, and Battery Storage”), the Council reserved the right to modify ENO’s Energy Smart Implementation Programs for Year 15 (“PY15”) upon input and conclusion of Council Docket UD-22-04.
   
• January 23, 2023 – ENO held a Technical Resource Manual (“TRM”) V6.1 Policy Update Meeting due to ENO’s third-party evaluator, ADM Associates’, update and expansion of the New Orleans TRM from V5.0 to V6.0 for application to ENO’s energy efficiency programs for Program Year 13 (2023). The purpose of TRM is to provide a single common reference document to estimate energy and peak demand savings from energy efficiency measures promoted by ENO (“deemed savings values”), particularly as applied to ENO’s Energy Smart Program. The TRM V6.1 update was necessary due to edits to the protocols, existing measures, and additions of new measures.  A few of the updates to TRM V6.1 included GSL incremental costs for Commercial Lighting, Lighting Controls, Bi-Level Lighting Fixtures in Parking Garages, LED Refrigerated Case Lighting, and LED Traffic Lights.
   

• October 10, 2024 – Council adopted Resolution R-24-570 implementing a plan for Entergy Smart Program Year 15 (2025).