North Carolina’s 2019 Clean Energy Plan set a goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in the state’s electricity sector by 70% from 2005 levels by 2030 and being carbon-neutral by 2050. The plan emphasizes affordability and economic growth at the same time.
Throughout most of 2020, state energy stakeholders explored ways to update utility regulations and electricity market structures to meet these goals. This report summarizes the discussions and recommendations of that collaboration, the North Carolina Energy Regulatory Process (NERP), which RAP and Rocky Mountain Institute facilitated.
The process focused on four main topics, researching their implementation elsewhere and their potential in North Carolina. NERP participants crafted recommendations for state decision-makers in the following areas:
- Comprehensive performance-based regulation reforms.
- Securitization for retirement of fossil assets.
- Competitive procurement of resources by investor-owned utilities.
- Wholesale electricity market reforms.
The report includes materials that NERP participants developed for briefing decision-makers on the findings in each of the four focus areas.
