Americans have long enjoyed the benefits of centralized, regulated electricity. Though a small segment of the population has pursued back-up, alternative, or “green” energy sources in recent years, most Americans have been the passive and protected recipients of energy provided by regional monopolies regulated by government agencies. The evolving deregulation of the electricity industry is forcing fundamental changes in the relationships among providers, regulators and consumers. Restructuring of the industry is also opening the market to new generation technologies and options.

As a meeting place for the discussion of diverse and often contentious views regarding distributed energy, the Consumer Energy Council of America initiated, in the Autumn of 1999, the CECA Distributed Energy Domestic Policy Forum. The Forum brought together over 60 of the nation’s leading experts on DE, representing federal and state government agencies, regulatory commissions, investor owned utilities, publicly owned utility systems, rural electric cooperatives, trade associations, national laboratories, state ratepayer advocates, and consumer and environmental organizations. In July 2001 the Forum was completed with the publication of the final report: Distributed Energy: Towards a 21st Century Infrastructure.

CECA’s mission for the Forum was to identify, develop, and promote policy recommendations that will overcome barriers and accelerate the use of DE resources to serve the needs of consumers in the emerging service economy and information age. This mission was carried out though the Forum objectives:

• To facilitate an environment that was conducive to generating new ideas, approaches and solutions
• To reach consensus where possible, and an understanding of alternative perspectives when consensus is not possible; and
• To create a final report with a broad set of policy recommendations that is widely circulated to all stakeholders, including policymakers at all levels of government.

During the plenary sessions, Forum members identified the most important issues in need of examination, and these were then taken up in focused subcommittees. Forum members identified four issues of merit, and developed the following subcommittees:

• Definitions Subcommittee
• Impacts Assessment Subcommittee
• Implementation/Regulatory Issues Subcommittee
• Technology Assessment/R&D Subcommittee

These subcommittees met frequently throughout the course of the year by means of personal interaction, conference calls, and e-mail correspondence. Members of these subcommittees worked out differences on contentious issues and developed materials that later become incorporated into the final report, Distributed Energy: Towards a 21st Century Infrastructure.

From the beginning, the goal was a thorough discussion of the many technological, regulatory, and business issues that must be addressed if distributed energy is to make a positive contribution to the nation’s energy infrastructure. The final report details the findings, conclusions, and recommendations of the Forum.