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Distribution System Planning


About Distribution System Planning (DSP)

Oregon’s electric companies have historically planned for the maintenance and operation of safe, reliable, affordable distribution systems—the part of the electric system that takes power from high voltage power lines and delivers it to local end users. This planning and decision-making is increasingly complex, given the evolving technologies, markets, customer interests, and policies. As a result the Oregon Public Utility Commission (PUC) is increasing its understanding of how electric utilities perform these planning processes, what investments they are making, and how they identify the best investment decisions.

DSP Investigation


The PUC opened Docket UM 2005 to investigate distribution system planning and develop a planning process that allows utilities to optimize the efficiency of their distribution system and maximize the customer value. In March 2020, the investigation completed the the Baselining Stage, with a goal of developing a shared understanding of the current state of distribution systems, and the current state of utilities distribution system plans and practices. In June 2020, the investigation completed the New Opportunities Stage, with a goal of identifying and examining distribution system planning best practices from elsewhere which may be useful for Oregon. 

New Opportunities Stage Webinars
As part of the New Opportunities Stage, the PUC hosted a series of webinars -- listed below -- to examine these topics. This webpage was created for convenient access to information from these webinars.

Docket UM 2005 will continue to retain all official records for the investigation, though this webpage serves as an additional record of the webinar series.

Webinar Archive 
With webinars complete, the webinar archive was created as a record of presentation abstracts, speaker bios, presentation slides, links to webinar recordings, and stakeholder questions.

Webinars included the following:

Webinar #10 - Oregon PUC policies and practices + next steps, presented by OPUC Staff
Thursday, June 11 from 1:30 - 3 p.m. Pacific 

Webinar #9 - Oregon PUC policies and practices, presented by OPUC Staff
Wednesday, June 10 from 1:30 - 3 p.m. Pacific 

Webinar #8 - Minnesota's Experience with Distribution System Planning, presented by Tricia DeBleeckere, Minnesota Department of Commerce
Wednesday, May 27 from 1:30 - 3 p.m. Pacific

Webinar #7 - Distribution Planning Regulatory Practices in Other States, presented by Lisa Schwartz, Lawrence Berkeley National Labs
Thursday, May 21 from 1:30 - 3 p.m. Pacific

Webinar #6 - Best Practices for Community Engagement, presented by Oriana Magnera, Verde, and Charity Fain, CEP
Wednesday, May 20 from 1:30 - 3 p.m. Pacific

Webinar #5 - Load Forecasting, presented by Ben Sigrin, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Thursday, May 14 from 9:30 - 11 a.m. Pacific

Webinar #4 - Non-wires Alternatives, presented by Jason Prince, Rocky Mountain Institute, and Mark Luoma, Consumers Energy
Wednesday, May 13 from 1:30 - 3 p.m. Pacific

Webinar #3 - Distributed Energy Resources Valuation, presented by Debra Lew, Debra Lew LLC, and John Shenot, Regulatory Assistance Project
Friday, May 8 from 1:30 - 3 p.m. Pacific

Webinar #2 - Hosting Capacity Analysis, presented by Aram Shumavon, Kevala Analytics, Steve Steffel, Pepco Holdings, and Marc Patterson, Idaho Power

Wednesday, May 6 from 9:30 - 11 a.m. Pacific

Webinar #1 - Integrated Distribution Planning Overview, presented by Paul De Martini, Newport Consulting
Thursday, April 30 from 2 - 3:30 pm Pacific. 





More In This Section

UM 2005 Docket

Webinar Archive

DSP Webinar Series Schedule (April-June 2020)