On January 6, 2022, the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), the State Energy Office, announced the kickoff of its process to develop the next iteration of its comprehensive state energy plan, the 2022 Comprehensive Energy Strategy (CES). The plan will examine the energy needs of the state and propose policy and programmatic solutions to help meet the state’s energy goals of reducing costs, improving energy equity, ensuring energy reliability, reducing environmental impacts, and maintaining the state’s economic competitiveness.
The 2022 CES will build on the previous plans released in 2013 and 2018 and cover a range of topics, including energy equity; building decarbonization; industrial decarbonization; greenhouse gas accounting for biofuels; energy resilience; electric vehicle roadmapping; and updates to the state’s Integrated Resource Plan. DEEP will apply five “lenses” to examine each topic, including climate, equity, affordability, economic development, and resilience. They also intend to rely on modeling efforts done for the greater New England region and across the country to inform their decisions where applicable. DEEP will also be requesting information from specific stakeholders to obtain additional expertise on various topics.
DEEP will hold an initial scoping meeting to discuss the plan on February 17, 2022 at 9:00 AM and will accept public comments on the questions listed in its announcement through March 3. Participants interested in keeping up to date on this effort should email DEEP.EnergyBureau@ct.gov and ask to be put on the distribution list for the 2022 Comprehensive Energy Strategy.