Co-Ops Roll Out One-Of-A-Kind Tool Kit For DG Interconnection Announces NRECA.

Business Editors

ARLINGTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 29, 2002

A collection of new business templates, developed by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), will help local utilities harness the power of distributed generation.

Distributed Generation (DG) refers to small-scale electricity generators deployed at or near the point of consumption. The Gas Research Institute estimated that, at the turn of the century, there was 75 Gigawatts of installed DG capacity nationwide and Resource Dynamics Corporation, an industry leader, notes the potential for the DG market to double by 2010.

The tool kit will help utilities put in place policies for the interconnection of DG units, assuring the safe and reliable operation of the distribution system. "The nation's electric cooperatives are reacting quickly to meet the changing needs of their members," said NRECA CEO Glenn English. "As interest in distributed generation grows, co-ops must anticipate the effects that its application will have on their systems and the DG toolkit will help them prepare."

The tool kit is a recognition by NRECA, National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corp. and Energy Co-Opportunity, who jointly funded the effort, that the DG market will continue to expand and that significant challenges must be met before its potential can be fully realized.

"The electric utility industry must establish comprehensive and flexible interconnection criteria," said Jay Morrison, NRECA senior Regulatory Counsel. "The DG tool kit addresses that need with documents that can and should be customized to reflect local conditions and that will be easily understood by utilities, regulators and consumers."

The interconnection tool kit contains the following resources:

-- A Business and Contract Guide for Interconnection to help cooperatives and
their employees move smoothly through the interconnection process.

-- A DG Rates Manual to help each cooperative think through the issues required
to design a rate that meets that cooperative's specific goals; and Consumer
Guidelines for Interconnection to educate consumers about the interconnection
process.

-- A Technical Application Guide that provides rules of thumb that engineers at
each cooperative can apply to develop detailed technical interconnection
requirements that work for their system.

-- A Model Interconnection Application to be filled out by consumers interested
in installing their own generation.

-- A Model Short Form Interconnection Contract for consumers installing small
DG units with a capacity of 3 kW or less.

-- A list of related resources available to Cooperative Research Network
members.

-- A Model Long Form Interconnection Contract for consumers installing DG units
with a capacity of 3 kW to 3 MW.

The document "tool kit" is offered at no charge to all interested parties and can be found on the association's web site on page http://www.nreca.org/leg_reg/DGToolKit/ .

NRECA is the national service organization that represents the nation's more than 900 private, consumer-owned electric cooperatives, which provide electric service to more than 35 million people in 46 states. Visit our web site at www.nreca.org