Voices of Experience: Data for Regulatory Decision-Making

Top-down composite image featuring people with computers and tablets speaking to each other at a table. Digital graphics of different charts appear over them.
VoE Data Reg Graphic 2
Image: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory, for US Department of Energy, Office of Electricity

The volume of grid data being produced is growing exponentially, from roughly 38 petabytes in 2024 to a projected 36 exabytes in 2040. The production of grid data is growing across all sources, but it is particularly proliferating on the customer side of the meter, where entities other than electric utilities have control and ownership. These developments are adding to the complexity of making regulatory decisions about the grid. Data and information are the essential foundations of decision-making, but it is often difficult to define what data is needed and determine how to use data to evaluate trade-offs. Exploring the challenges, opportunities, and solutions being considered or implemented for getting timely and useful data into regulatory decision-making processes is paramount. The Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Electricity launched the Voices: Regulatory Data effort to foster open dialogue, bridge disparate perspectives, and cross-pollinate ideas between stakeholders to identify solutions. This targeted effort will convene stakeholders for virtual meetings from August through October 2026, and findings from the effort will be disseminated in a report that captures the collective voice of participants.

The DOE’s Office of Electricity’s Voices of Experience: Data for Regulatory Decision-Making (Voices: Regulatory Data)  

This is a series of informal peer-to-peer roundtable conversations. The effort convenes stakeholders about how various sources and types of data are utilized in the regulatory decision-making process, the current value of the data, and mechanisms or approaches for utilizing and sharing data to enhance decision-making. The Voices: Regulatory Data effort convenes stakeholders for open dialogue and active listening to enhance learning and gather firsthand insights from those at the forefront of the intersection of data and regulatory decision-making. 

Join the Conversation

Voices: Regulatory Data will host a series of virtual, interactive sessions that are scheduled to take place from August through October 2026. The sessions are designed to promote the sharing of experiences and ideas to help identify solutions for utilizing an increasing amount of data effectively and efficiently in regulatory decision-making processes.

Currently scheduled virtual meetings on the intersection of data and regulatory processes are listed in the table below, along with registration links. Each session targets designated stakeholder groups and will involve discussion of a specific topic. Please register for the session(s) that match your interests and expertise.

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Schedule of Conversations

Complexity Meets Urgency: Navigating the Growth of Data

Session Description: The amount of information that utilities measure, collect, and model on their systems has significantly increased with the development of better computers and communications equipment. Consumer devices are gaining more measurement capabilities, which are often aggregated up to third-party data analysts. Advanced algorithms are introducing new ways to integrate separate data sources to provide insights into power system operations and effectiveness. With these sources and others increasing the volume of data that can potentially be used in regulatory decision-making, what is the best way to navigate and sift through that growing body of information? This series of sessions will engage stakeholders to discuss how increased data volume has helped regulatory processes, how it has hindered those processes, and how to handle the increased number of data sources that may be useful for these processes.

Distribution Planning: Beyond Data Silos to Enhance Decision-Making 

Session Description: Distribution system data, both from grid and customer assets, has not always been transparent or usable for decision-makers. Recent efforts to collect and understand the available data have varied across states and utilities, and such data often varies in type, quality, format, and process. Distribution system data may be siloed to specific processes or proceedings and may be difficult to track over time or use in other regulatory processes (e.g., rate making). During this session, stakeholders will share experiences with accessing and providing distribution system data, discuss challenges and insights related to the usefulness of the data for decision-making, and brainstorm opportunities to make distribution system data more actionable.

From Data to Decision: Meaningful Comparisons of Options and Alternatives

Session Description: The electricity sector is in a state of change. Meeting significant future load projections affordably and modernizing the electric grid to reliably power American ambitions and innovations requires assessing the value of traditional investments alongside new emerging technologies. It can be challenging to effectively compare and evaluate investments, proposals, and programs and to determine economic and operational impacts without the right data in the right format with the right context. These sessions will explore what data is necessary to meaningfully compare options and what data about emerging technology costs and benefits would better support investment decisions.

Data for Everyone: Creating a Data-Supported Decision-Making Environment

Session Description: Processes for assessing and evaluating utility investments involve numerous stakeholders. Each has information or data to share, and each is looking for data about the system or new technologies. Some states have implemented data platforms to enable sharing, and some utilities provide access to relevant data to participants in a particular proceeding. Are these efforts sufficient to empower participants and inform regulators? This series of sessions will discuss successful approaches and valuable characteristics for enhancing participants’ understanding of the data and their ability to access and use it.