Mississippi Administrative Code › Title 39 - UTILITIES › Part 1 - PUBLIC UTILITIES RULES OF PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE › Chapter 29 - Integrated Resource Planning and Reporting › Rule 39-1-29 › Section 39-1-29- 104 - Integrated Resource Plan

Current through June 25, 2024
The Integrated Resource Plan must contain the elements set
					 forth below, and shall be filed by all regulated electric utilities in
					 accordance with the time frame and deadlines established herein.
1.
Statement of Objectives
The electric utility shall clearly state and support the
					 objectives for its IRP, which may include but are not limited to: reliable,
					 adequate, and reasonably-priced service; economic efficiency; financial
					 integrity of the utility; equal consideration of available and
					 commercially-proven demand-side and supply-side resources; reasonable
					 mitigation of potential risks; consideration of future environmental impacts
					 and associated costs; and consistency with governmental regulations and
					 policies. In meeting its defined objectives, the utility should put itself in a
					 position to respond to reasonably anticipated economic conditions,
					 technological advancements and changes, and customer demand for energy
					 services. Any utility-specific objectives must comply with the Commission's
					 overall objective of ensuring transparent evaluation of a comprehensive set of
					 potential resource options to determine a base or reference resource plan that
					 offers the most economic and reliable combination of resources satisfying the
					 forecasted load requirements.
2.
Development of a Range of Demand
				  Forecasts
A forecast of peak load and energy requirements over a
					 planning period/horizon of twenty (20) years shall be developed, and the amount
					 of capacity required to serve those forecasted load requirements shall be
					 determined, taking into consideration the electric utility's reliability
					 requirements, existing supply and demand-side resources, and any planned
					 additions to and/or retirements of existing resources (both supply-side and
					 demand side). A reasonable set of assumptions for econometric and/or end use
					 variables should be considered in the development of a range of outcomes
					 (futures) that complement the long-term forecasts of energy demand and energy
					 consumption. A planning period/horizon of 20 years shall be used.
3.
Identifying and
				  Characterizing Supply-Side and Demand-Side Resources
For purposes of the entire 20-year planning horizon, the
					 electric utility should assess its supply-side and demand-side resources based
					 on their cost effectiveness and considering both the utility's planning
					 objectives and the Commission's stated policy goals. For incremental capacity
					 additions, reasonably useful, commercially-proven, and economic supply-side and
					 demand-side resources that may be available to an electric utility should be
					 considered, including but not limited to energy efficiency, demand response,
					 and distributed energy resources ("DER"). The electric utility's filed IRP
					 Report should, at a minimum, include an evaluation and discussion of the
					 following:
a
.
Existing Supply-Side Resources
The electric utility shall identify, evaluate and discuss
					 in its IRP Report all existing supply-side resources, including but not limited
					 to:
i. Utility-owned generation - The
				  utility shall include in this section an evaluation and discussion of any
				  planned additions and/or retirements to legacy fleet.
ii. Energy-purchase transactions of any type,
				  one year or longer in duration;
iii. Unsolicited written, term sheet offers
				  for firm power of 50 MW or more, including analysis, determination of whether
				  the offer was rejected and the reason for rejection;
iv. Sale transactions of any type, one year
				  or longer in duration;
v. Exchange
				  energy;
vi. Cogeneration;
vii. Existing Utility-Owned
				  Distributed Energy Resources;
viii. Interruptible capacity;
ix. Pooling or coordination agreements that
				  reduce resource requirements; and
x. Any other supply-side resources