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MA DPU Hearing Officer Directs Consultants To Distribute Proposed Municipal Aggregation Templates And Its New Version Of The Proposed Guidelines
Re: Investigation by the Department of Public Utilities on its own Motion into Establishing Guidelines for Municipal Aggregation Proceedings.
A hearing officer issues a memo and a clean and redline copies of the draft template discussed during the February 27, 2024, meeting. More specifically, the hearing officers’ requests that the Consultants distribute their proposed templates to the D.P.U. 23-67 distribution list by March 8, 2024, concurrent with their distribution of a new version of the Proposed Guidelines (see February 16, 2024, hearing officer memorandum). To assist the Consultants in this matter, Department staff has drafted a revised version of the February 7, 2024, templates that considers the discussion during the February 27, 2024, meeting (see Template samples below).
From the Hearing Examiner’s Memo:
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On Tuesday, February 27, 2024, the Department convened the initial meeting of the Template sub-working group. The discussion during the first part of the meeting focused on Plan templates, drafts of which Department staff distributed to stakeholders on February 7, 2024 (see February 7, 2024, hearing officer memorandum). At the end of the discussion, representatives from the municipal aggregation consultants (“Consultants”) offered to develop a revised set of Plan templates. The Department appreciates and accepts the Consultants’ offer in this matter. The Department requests that the Consultants distribute their proposed templates to the D.P.U. 23-67 distribution list by March 8, 2024, concurrent with their distribution of a new version of the Proposed Guidelines (see February 16, 2024, hearing officer memorandum). To assist the Consultants in this matter, Department staff has drafted a revised version of the February 7, 2024, templates that takes into account the discussion during the February 27, 2024, meeting.
The second part of the Template sub-working group meeting focused on the Annual Report template, during which the Department of Energy Resources (“DOER”) presented its proposed template (see February 7, 2024, hearing officer memorandum). At the end of the discussion, DOER offered to convene a meeting to continue the discussion of how DOER’s proposed template could be revised to improve the effectiveness and efficiency by which municipalities and their Consultants provide the information to be included in the Annual Reports. The Department appreciates and accepts DOER’s offer in this matter. The Department requests that DOER provide all interested stakeholders an opportunity to participate in this meeting. {***}
As reported previously, on August 15, 2023, the Department of Public Utilities (“Department”) issued an Order opening an investigation into establishing guidelines for municipal aggregation proceedings, D.P.U. 23-67. Pursuant to the most recent hearing officer memorandum issued on February 16, 2024, the Department convened a sub-working group to develop uniform templates for the municipal aggregation plan (“Plan”) elements.
23-67HOMemo-TemplateSub-WorkingGroupNextSteps.pdf (03/01/2024)
CleanRevisedplantemplates2.29.24.pdf (03/01/2024)
RedlineRevisedplantemplates2.29.24.pdf (03/01/2024)
DPU23-67AnnualReportTemplate-DOERStrawProposal.xl (02/20/2024)
DPU23-67AnnualReportTemplate-DOERStrawProposal-Il (02/20/2024)
Hearing Officer Memorandum & Next Steps 02/16/2024)
23-67 (08/15/2023)
