The nonprofit Listen Community Services has dropped its appeal to the New Hampshire Supreme Court challenging a Public Utilities Commission order last fall that upended the NHSaves energy efficiency program.

Listen’s decision to withdraw the appeal Monday follows similar action from four other parties earlier this month. The nonprofit cited passage of H.B. 549 as the reason for the withdrawal, saying that the law signed by Gov. Chris Sununu in February addresses “many of the substantive issues on appeal.” (See NH Large Business Sector Takes Biggest Hit in Revised EE Budget.)

Parties to the docket for the 2021-2023 Triennial Energy Efficiency Plan (DE 20-092) asked the PUC in December 2020 to approve a settlement they reached governing the new program. The PUC denied the request, reworking the foundation of the program in a way that brought the state’s EE industry to a standstill because of funding uncertainty. Parties asked for a review of the order, but the PUC denied the request. They moved to the courts to appeal the order, reaching the state’s highest court in February.

The Office of the Consumer Advocate was the first to withdraw its appeal, having agreed to do so if the PUC suspended the part of its order specific to program rates and revert them to the levels of the prior triennial plan. H.B. 549 has a similar effect to the OCA’s agreement, putting a formula into law for how NHSaves will be funded. Regulators rushed the law through the legislature to resolve concerns about the PUC’s order.

In its March 3 notice of withdrawal, the OCA said that the new law doesn’t address “every legal infirmity” in the PUC’s order or the procedures used to issue it, but the law makes any outstanding controversy “academic in nature.”

Eversource Energy withdrew its appeal March 3, and Clean Energy NH and Conservation Law Foundation withdrew a joint appeal March 15.

Program Approval

Despite the clarity for program rates and structure provided in H.B. 549, it still requires the PUC to approve an updated plan for 2022-2023, filed by the state’s utilities March 1. The plan cuts the originally proposed NHSaves budget for the two years by about 50%, based on the new rate structure set in the law.

The commission must decide on the plan by May 1. In a March 16 procedural order, the PUC set a hearing for April 21, saying it will seek additional input on whether changes to the program are reasonable based on guidelines of H.B. 549.