Commission Calendar and Upcoming Events
The information below is subject to change. Current information available online at PUC calendar.
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Date
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Time
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Event
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Jan 3
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10 AM
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Planning Meeting: Energy Transition Advisory Committee updates and discussion
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Jan 5
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10 AM
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Agenda Meeting: Service Area Transfer between the City of Barnesville and Lake Region Electric Cooperative; Service Area Transfer between the Worthington Public Utilities and Nobles Cooperative Electric; Service Area Transfer between East Grand Forks Water and Light Commission and PKM Electric Cooperative; Service Area Transfer between the City of Waseca and Xcel; Summit Carbon Solutions application for routing permit for the Otter Tail to Wilkin Carbon Dioxide Pipeline Project; Approval of Xcel’s General Time-Of-Use Service Tariff; Formal complaint regarding the services provided by CenturyLink on behalf of the Communications Workers of America
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Jan 11
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9 AM
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Agenda Meeting: Utility annual Safety, Reliability, and Service Quality Report; Gas Affordability Program reports for multiple utilities; Dodge County Wind application for a Certificate of Need and Site and Route Permits; Xcel’s Petition for Approval of a Resiliency Service Program; Minnesota Power’s Petition for Approval or Residential Rate Design; Otter Tail Power’s Update of Renewable Energy Credit Rates for Cogeneration and Small Power Production Rates
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Jan 18
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10 AM
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Agenda Meeting: Minnesota Power rate case (oral argument)
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Jan 20
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10 AM
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Distributed Generation Workgroup
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Jan 23
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1 PM
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Agenda Meeting: Minnesota Power rate case (deliberations)
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Notable Commission Decisions or Actions
Filings can be accessed using the docket number at: MN PUC eFiling Search
Dec 1, 2022 Decisions
2023 Annual Fuel Forecast and Monthly Fuel Cost Charges for Xcel Energy, Minnesota Power and Otter Tail Power (22-179; 22-216; 22-214) The Commission approved the following Fuel Forecasts:
- Xcel Energy - 27,443,347 MWh and total system costs of $1,069,246,000
- Minnesota Power – 8,815,400 MWh and total system costs of $294,446,791
- Otter Tail Power - 5,612,089 MWh and total system costs of $146,968,503
Xcel Energy’s Petition for Approval of Electric Vehicle Pilot Programs (18-643) The Commission extended the enrollment term of Xcel Energy's Fleet EV Service and Public Charging Pilots by 1 year and allowed Xcel to reallocate unspent funds between pilots.
CenterPoint Energy’s Paperless Billing Customer Initiative (22-237) The Commission required the company to more prominently feature an opt out on the customer’s online account screen, requires the company to monitor the process and report complaints filed, number of opt outs, number of customers affected by the process who fell into arrears after 90 days due to missing a bill that was previously provided by mail, to provide extra training to CenterPoint Energy’s Minnesota customer service staff to handle customer issues, and to report the cost savings resulting from this initiative. The company future dated the implementation and will notify the Consumer Affairs Office when the auto-enroll commences.
Dec. 5, 2022 Action
Power Plant Siting Act Annual Hearing: This annual hearing gave interested persons an opportunity to be heard regarding any matters relating to the siting of large electric generating power plants and routing of high-voltage transmission lines.
Dec. 7-8, 2022 Action
Environmental Assessment Scoping Meeting for St. Joseph area transmission line rebuild project The Commission held online and in-person public information meetings on Great River Energy’s proposed transmission line project and the state’s route permitting process. These meeting also provided an opportunity for members of the public to ask questions or give comments.
Dec. 8, 2022 Decisions
Reconsideration of October 2022, Orders disallowing recovery of certain natural gas costs for CenterPoint Energy, Great Plains Natural Gas and Xcel Energy (21-138, 21-235) The Commission denied reconsideration requests for CenterPoint, Great Plains, and Xcel.
Commission inquiry into the impact of severe weather in February 2021 on Minnesota natural Gas utilities and customers (21-135; 21-610; 21-611) The Commission ordered the utilities, by August 1, 2023, to file detailed plans that will help mitigate the impact of future price spikes and also ordered CenterPoint, Xcel, and MERC to file details related to the development of gas Integrated Resource Plans that will begin in 2025.
Dec. 15, 2022 Decisions
Great Plains Natural Gas Company Annual Report on Incentive Compensation and Refund Plan (22-157) The Commission accepted Great Plains’ annual incentive compensation report; approved the proposed $15,679 refund; ordered for future annual incentive compensation refund filings, interest be applied using the prime rate compounded monthly starting from the date the incentive compensation was paid to employees through the month immediately preceding the billing cycle in which the refund is issued to ratepayers.
Dakota Electric Association’s Petition to Modify its Member Service Information - Disconnection of Service Tariff and Request for Variance to Minnesota Rules (22-494) The Commission required Dakota Electric to replace the pre-disconnection in-person visit with an additional phone call prior to disconnection. If they cannot reach the member by phone, they will send the member a second notice via certified mail. The Commission also approved the company’s request to modify its Member Service Information and required several consumer protections for vulnerable members.
Petition by Citizens Utility Board of Minnesota to adopt Open Data Access Standards; Commission Inquiry into Privacy Policies of Rate-Regulated Energy Utilities (19-505, 12-1344) The Commission voted to incrementally expand use of its Open Data Access Standards (ODAS) to third-party requests for aggregated customer energy use data (CEUD) to requests for aggregated CEUD at city and county scales. Through its Order, the Commission has committed to taking comments on how the ODAS may be applied to anonymized CEUD, which has been used by researchers to examine equity issues in utility service and to support the development of time-of-use rates.
Dec. 22, 2022 Decisions
Telephone Assistance Plan (TAP) Review (22-478) The Commission accepted the TAP Fund Review and reduced the TAP surcharge from $0.07 per month to $0.03 per month.
Minnesota Energy Resources Corporation for Approval of a Gas Utility Infrastructure Cost Rider True-Up Report for 2020, Revenue Requirements for 2022, and Revised Surcharge Factors (21-232) The Commission approved the revised recovery factors and ordered that the right-of-way issue be addressed in MERC’s pending rate case.
Other decisions
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Docket
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Filing or Docket Summary
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22-76
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The Commission approved Minnesota Power’s Renewable Resources Rider and 2022 Renewable Factor, including the $3.8 million recovery for a metering error at the Bison Wind Energy Center
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20-434
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The Commission approved Center Point Energy’s Compliance Filing in the matter of the Petition by the Company to Introduce a Renewable Natural Gas Interconnection Tariff
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22-388
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The Commission approved the Service Territory Transfer between the City of North Branch, North Branch Water and Light Commission, and East Central Energy
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22-528
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The Commission approved Xcel Energy’s implementation on the reduced 2023 recovery factor
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22-573
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The Commission approved Minnesota Power’s implementation on the reduced 2023 recovery factor
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Notable New Dockets or Filings
Filings can be accessed using the docket number at: MN PUC eFiling Search
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Xcel filed a request to approve replacement solar PPAs for 80 MW (Louise and Fillmore Solar) to implement the delayed expansion of Renewable*Connect due to the approved PPA (Elk Creek Solar) being stalled in MISO interconnection review
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Complaint against Zayo Group for alleged disconnection of a 911 selective router without PUC approval
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PUC opened an investigation into the Impacts of the Federal Inflation Reduction Act by issuing a notice with a list of questions for electric and gas utilities and opportunity for public comment.
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Received 80 bids in response to Xcel’s RFP
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Complaint against CenturyLink for customers who lost service
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Compliance filings – pipeline integrity and emergency response, updated field emergency response, integrated contingency
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How to get involved with the PUC process
The Public Utilities Commission encourages Minnesotans to get involved in our processes, stay informed on utility-related issues, and provide input on topics of interest. Visit our website to see what is currently open for public comment. Also, check out the series of short videos that explains who we are, how we work and how to get involved.
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