Nancy Brockway — 617-645-4018 — nbrockway@aol.com
10 Allen Street, Boston, MA 02131

Studies

Documents regarding Smart Metering:

  • Study for Advanced Metering Infrastructure: A Snapshot of Smart Metering in North America, Mid-2010: download [pdf 436Kb]
  • ORDER NO. 83410: IN THE MATTER OF THE APPLICATION BEFORE THE OF BALTIMORE GAS AND ELECTRIC PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION COMPANY FOR AUTHORIZATION OF MARYLAND TO DEPLOY A SMART GRID INITIATIVE AND TO ESTABLISH A SURCHARGE FOR THE RECOVERY OF COST download [pdf 300Kb]
  • Power Point Presentation: download [ppt 118MB]
Study for National Regulatory Research Institute, Advanced Metering Infrastructure: What Regulators Need to Know About Its Value to Residential Customers, NRRI Report 08-03. Describes AMI, provides an overview of a cost-benefit analysis for approval of AMI cost recovery, describes operational benefits of AMI (such as remote meter-reading), and describes and evaluates the results of three major pilots of dynamic pricing for residential customers, with particular attention to whether low-use and low-income customers can avoid high-cost peak pricing and take advantage of lower-cost off-peak pricing. Available at http://nrri.org/pubs/multiutility/advanced_metering_08-03.pdf.
Study for the State of Delaware recommending a portfolio approach to future electricity resources, with a public process to determine risk preferences, and the establishment of a Delaware Energy Authority to keep the wholesale power marketers honest. It has two appendices, one showing initiatives states had taken to re-regulate their power markets and the other showing proposals not enacted as of the date of the study (May 22, 2007). Download study (420K pdf); Appendix A (154K pdf) and Appendix B (103K pdf)

Selected Testimony

Smart Metering

On behalf of the Pennsylvania and Maryland consumer advocates, Brockway filed testimony in four dockets where utilities sought approval for implementation of smart metering. In these testimonies, Brockway reviewed what is known about consumer response to dynamic prices facilitated by smart metering. She concluded that there remains considerable uncertainty regarding the numbers of customers who will respond to dynamic prices, the extent of demand response, the extent (if any) of energy savings, and the persistence of reductions over time. She also reviewed the status of efforts to address the need for standards and enforcement mechanisms in the areas of interoperability, cybersecurity, and privacy. Finally, she identified the risk of unfair and unreasonable disconnections of customers as a result of billing and customer service practices enabled by smart metering.

  • Direct Testimony of Nancy Brockway on Behalf of the Pennsylvania Office of Consumer Advocate — October 16, 2009: download
  • Direct Testimony of Nancy Brockway on Behalf of the Pennsylvania Office of Consumer Advocate — October 21, 2009: download
  • Before the Maryland Public Service Commission Case No. 9208, In The Matter of Baltimore Gas and Electric Company For Authorization To Deploy Smart Grid Initiative and To Establish A Surcharge Mechanism For The Recovery Of Cost, Direct Testimony of Nancy Brockway on behalf of the Maryland Office of People's Counsel — October 13, 2009: download
  • Before The Maryland Public Service Commission Case No. 9207, In The Matter of Potomac Electric Power Company and Delmarva Power and Light Company Request For The Deployment Of Advanced Meter Infrastructure, Direct Testimony of Nancy Brockway on behalf of the Maryland Office of People’s Counsel — October 20, 2009: download

On Behalf of Friends of the Earth

Direct Testimony of Nancy Brockway, regarding need for and alternatives to proposed new nuclear power plants, and consequences of pre-approval, In Re: Combined Application of South Carolina Electric & Gas Company for a Certificate of Environmental Compatibility and Public Convenience and Necessity and for a Base Load Review Order for the Construction and Operation of a Nuclear Facility at Jenkinsville, South Carolina, filed in South Carolina Public Service Commission Docket No. 2008-196-E, October 17, 2008. This document can be downloaded [a 2270Kb Adobe Acrobat document]

On Behalf of the Staff of the Delaware Public Service Commission Staff

Testimony of Nancy Brockway Regarding Proposed Electric Service Reliability and Quality Standards, January 20, 2006, on behalf of the Staff of the Delaware Public Service Commission Staff, DPSC Docket No. 50. This document can be downloaded [a 112k Word document]

On Behalf of the New Jersey Division of the Ratepayer Advocate

SURREBUTTAL TESTIMONY OF NANCY BROCKWAY
ON BEHALF OF THE NEW JERSEY DIVISION OF THE RATEPAYER ADVOCATE
REGARDING OVERALL POLICY ISSUES
Filed: December 27, 2005
This document can be downloaded [a 93k PDF document]
TESTIMONY OF NANCY BROCKWAY
ON BEHALF OF THE NEW JERSEY DIVISION OF THE RATEPAYER ADVOCATE
REGARDING OVERALL POLICY ISSUES (Redacted)
Filed: November 14, 2005
This document can be downloaded [a 325k Word document]

On Behalf of Local 253

BAY STATE GAS COMPANY RATE CASE D.T.E. 05-27
DIRECT TESTIMONY OF NANCY BROCKWAY ON BEHALF OF LOCAL 273, U.W.U.A.
July: 2005
This document can be downloaded [a 253k Word document]

Before the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board

DIRECT TESTIMONY OF NANCY BROCKWAY
ON BEHALF OF THE CONSUMER ADVOCATE
Dated: October 17, 2005
This document can be downloaded [a 10,000K PDF document]

Selected Publications

Nancy Brockway, Electricity Competition: What Lies Ahead, a presentation to the Harvard Electricity Policy Group, January 2003.
http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/hepg/Papers/Brockway_HEPGFuture_of%20_Electricity_Competition_1-30-03.pdf
Nancy Brockway and Michael Sherman, Stranded Benefits in Electric Utilities Restructuring, The National Council on Competition and the Electric Industry: The Electric Industry Restructuring Series, October 1996. (available upon request)
Nancy Brockway, Statewide Administration of Low-Income Programs Under Energy Utility Restructuring: Opportunities and Pitfalls, National Consumer Law Center, February 1998. Describes the opportunities and pitfalls of statewide administration versus utility-by-utility administration of low-income programs under energy utility restructuring. Summarizes status of this issue to date in states with restructuring legislation or regulatory authorization, noting that five states, (CA, IL, NH, NY and WI, the latter through PSC recommendation,) have moved strongly in the direction of statewide administration and two (ME and MA) have recognized the value of statewide programs.
http://www.liheap.ncat.org/pubs/brock.htm
Nancy Brockway, A Low-Income Advocate's Introduction to Electric Industry Restructuring and Retail Wheeling," National Consumer Law Center, June 1994, 32 pages. Summarizes different positions within the restructuring debate, discusses the impact of proposed retail competition on low-income residential customers, and reviews some options available to low-income customers in response to industry restructuring proposals. Contact: NCLC, 77 Summer Street, 10th Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1006; Phone: 617/542-8010; Fax: 617/542-8028
Nancy Brockway and Blair Hamilton, et al., Approaches to Electric Utility Energy Efficiency for Low-Income Customers in a Changing Regulatory Environment, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, June 1998, 75 pages. An overview and analyses of the approaches selected states take with restructuring regulatory orders or legislation to funding, administering and implementing low-income energy efficiency. Geared toward Weatherization Assistance Program grantees to help them identify where their state is positioned vis a vis restructuring, to understand issues in their state, and to structure the best possible package of low-income energy efficiency services. Includes an overview of the status of restructuring in all states as of the summer of 1998. (available upon request)
Nancy Brockway, Low-Income Comments before the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, D.P.U. Docket No. 98-100, May 27, 1996. Identifies low-income issues and possible solutions for a utility regulatory commission considering restructuring.
http://www.consumerlaw.org/initiatives/energy_and_utility/testeirr.shtml
Nancy Brockway, and Margot Saunders, Phyllis Kimmel, and Maggie Spade, Water Affordability Programs [Project #184], American Water Works Association, Summer 1998. The purpose of this study was to identify alternative methods of rate design, billing, and collection in order to address the gap between water prices and low-income households' ability to pay. These affordability models provide viable mechanisms to water utilities for realizing savings for their systems and reducing the political fallout from service terminations. These strategies respond to the problems caused by rising water rates while meeting both the standard principles of rate design and the legal requirements prohibiting unreasonable discrimination in rates. Ordering information at
http://www.awwarf.org/research/TopicsAndProjects/execSum/184.aspx
Nancy Brockway, Electricity Deregulation May Leave Poor in the Dark, The Forum, Vol. 12, No. 3, Fall 1997.
NBrockway.com: testimony/publications