PUC hearing probes Public Service's NPA framework, electrification-first efforts and data collection

During extended cross-examination at the Public Utilities Commission, company witnesses described how Public Service is designing an NPA framework while also expanding customer data collection and pilot programs to support future NPA analyses.

Patrick Murphy, who oversees aspects of the company's customer energy and transportation work, told the commission the utility has begun collecting targeted end-use information following the Mountain Energy decision and has identified customers that meet a 500-therm threshold for snow-melt measures. Murphy said the company is developing a methodology to correlate usage patterns and will add two questions to its builders call-line intake to capture (1) why customers say no to electrification and (2) the primary end use (space heating, water heating, other). Those adjustments are intended to build a dataset the company hopes to use in the next Gas Infrastructure Plan (GIP) in 2027.

On cost allocation, Murphy reiterated the company's position that incentives and NPA cost recovery should be allocated according to the measure type (gas vs. electric) and that the company does not propose to use clean-heat plan or DSM-beneficial-electrification funds to support MPA portfolios. He described the company's move away from a strict "order of spend" approach toward a proportional approach adopted in earlier clean-heat proceedings because the order-of-spend design had proven administratively unworkable.

Conservation Advocates and commissioners pressed the company on whether customers who keep gas service after installing heat pumps actually continue to consume gas; Murphy said about 9496% of customers who take heat-pump rebates retain gas for backup, but the company has not yet quantified the actual gas volumes used for backup. He said the company will add questions to rebate forms and other touch points to better track end uses and motivations.

Commissioners also asked about a customer-facing calculator the company said it would evaluate for the July 2026 filing, and Jones (manager of gas strategic planning) said company teams are developing stakeholder engagement processes and a tracking database but have not set a firm timeline for full deployment. The company said it is open to continued stakeholder input and to refinements to the NPA methodology ahead of the 2027 GIP.