Dive Brief:

• The Edison Electric Institute (EEI) and the National Resources Defense Council's (NRDC) joint statement on the need for a new regulatory regime to support distributed generation and other emerging technologies reflects a new consensus.
• Talk among regulators, utilities and other stakeholders at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners winter meeting where the statement was unveiled focused on the need for “detente.”
• Part of the change in attitude is driven by the fact that consumers have more choices about how they get their electricity.

Dive Insight:

The statement from EEI and NRDC signals change. Last fall, EEI supported Arizona Public Service in a bitter debate in Arizona over net metering. EEI and APS spent millions fighting to change the state's net metering rules. But before that, EEI warned in a report about how solar rooftop panels and other technologies could disrupt the traditional utility business model.

"The old way of doing business, the centralized generator, the distribution company and the customer -- that's just not where the future's going to be," David Cash, a commissioner with the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, told EnergyWire.

NRDC thinks utilities are shifting their views. "I think it marks a sea change in the attitude in particular of the leadership of the utility industry regarding the promise of the technology revolution that energy efficiency and [distributed generation] represents,” Ralph Cavanagh, co-director of NRDC's energy program, said.

This new detente will go state by state, and there may be some bumps in the road (like Rocky Mountain Power's proposal for a new solar fee in Utah).