Washington (Platts)--7Feb2013/605 pm EST/2305 GMT

The US Department of Energy is considering paying to extend a study on better connecting the eastern portion of the US electric system with the natural gas system, the head of the effort said Thursday.

DOE might extend the existing Eastern Interconnection Planning Collaborative to study the gas/electric interface, widely seen as a major issue facing planners, EIPC executive director David Whiteley said.

EIPC, funded by DOE in 2010 in an effort to bring together planning authorities, industry and others, is a first-of-its-kind effort including virtually all segments of the electric industry. EIPC includes independent system operators, state and federal regulators, engineers, end-users, transmission owners and developers, and generation owners. DOE also funded similar initiatives in the Western Interconnection and in Texas. The current incarnation of the EIPC effort wrapped up its work January 18.

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Whiteley made his remarks at the winter committee meeting of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, where state regulators and others lauded the results of the process, which developed highly detailed planning scenarios covering 2015 to 2030.

Whiteley said that he is "very much encouraged that people found it helpful, and beneficial and a positive experience."

David Meyer of DOE's Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability said the agency felt a need to create an interconnection-level organization to help figure out a path through the myriad challenges facing electricity planners reliability officials, state regulators and others.

"This train isn't going to slow down," Meyer said at a NARUC meeting panel discussion.

Lauren Azar, a former member of the Wisconsin Public Service Commission, who was named to as an adviser to Secretary of Energy Steven Chu in May 2011, expressed similar sentiments as Meyer.

"We will either work alone, or die alone," Azar said. She urged state regulators to think beyond their borders when it comes to addressing challenges, saying a broad perspective is necessary.

It is imperative to avoid planning based on "snapshots in time," but should rather be done with a longer view, Azar said. She served on the Eastern Interconnection States' Planning Council, a coalition of state governors and utility commissions that is a sister organization to EIPC and funded through the same DOE program. The process revealed difficulties in regards to seams and a lack of necessary data, she said.

--Jason Fordney, jason_fordney@platts.com
--Edited by Carla Bass, carla_bass@platts.com

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