199—20.11 (476) Customer notification of peaks in electric energy demand. Each electric utility shall inform its customers of the significance of reductions in consumption of electricity during hours of peak demand.
	 20.11(1) Annual notice. Each electric utility shall provide its customers, on an annual basis, with a written notice explaining how growth in demand affects a utility’s investment costs and why reduction of customer usage during periods of peak demand may help delay or reduce the amount of future rate increases. The notice shall be delivered to its customers between May 1 and June 15 of each year if peak demand is likely to occur during the months of June through September. If peak demand usually occurs during the months of October through February, the notice shall be delivered to its customers between August 1 and September 15.
	 20.11(2) Notification plan. Each investor-owned utility shall have on file with the board a plan to notify its customers of an approaching peak demand on the day when peak demand is likely to occur.
	  a.   	 The plan shall include the following:
	 (1) 	 A provision for a general notice to be given customers prior to the time when peak demand is likely to occur as prescribed in 20.11(2)“b” and an explanation of when and how notice of an approaching peak in electric demand will be given to customers.
	 (2) 	 A provision for direct notice to be given customers whose load reduction will have a significant impact on the utility’s peak. The utility shall provide for such notice to be given prior to the time when peak demand is likely to occur, as prescribed in 20.11(2)“b,” and shall explain the criteria used to identify customers to whom notice will be given and when and how notice will be given.
	 (3) 	 A statement showing the total costs, with each component thereof itemized, projected to be associated with implementing the plan. Notice should be provided in the most efficient manner available. The board may reject a plan which includes excessive costs or which specifies an ineffective method of customer notification and may direct development of a new plan.
	 (4) 	 The text of the general and direct message to be given in the general notice to customers. The message shall, at a minimum, include the name of the utility or utilities providing the notice, an explanation that conditions exist which indicate a peak in demand is approaching, and a statement that reduction in usage of electricity during the period of peak demand will ease the burden placed on the utility’s system by growth in peak demand and may help delay or reduce the amount of future rate increases.
	 (5) 	 A designation of the U.S. weather station(s), situated within the utility’s service territory, whose temperature readings and predictions will be used by the utility in applying the standard in 20.11(2)“b.”
	 (6) 	 A provision for joint delivery, by two or more utilities, of the general notice to customers in regions of the state where U.S. weather station(s) predict conditions specified in 20.11(2)“b” will exist on the same day.
	  b.   	 For purposes of this rule, peak demand is likely to occur on a nonholiday weekday between June 15 and September 15 when the following conditions exist:
	 (1) 	 The utility’s designated weather station predicts the temperature will rise above 95° Fahrenheit (35° Celsius), and the designated weather station officially recorded a temperature above 95° Fahrenheit (35° Celsius) on the previous day, or
	 (2) 	 The utility’s designated weather station predicts the temperature will rise to above 90° Fahrenheit (33° Celsius) on a day following at least two consecutive days of temperatures above 95° Fahrenheit (35° Celsius), as officially recorded by the designated weather station, but
	 (3) 	 If a utility can demonstrate it would have been required to provide between June 15 and September 15 a peak alert notice to customers, because of the existence of the conditions set forth in 20.11(2)“b”(1) or 20.11(2)“b”(2), on more than six days in any one of the preceding ten years, the utility may substitute a 97° Fahrenheit (36° Celsius) standard in lieu of the 95° Fahrenheit (35° Celsius) standard in the subrule.
	 20.11(3) Implementation of notification plan. The utility shall implement the approved plan on each day of the year when peak demand is likely to occur, as prescribed by 20.11(2)“b.”
	 20.11(4) Permissive notices. The standard for implementing peak alert notification in subrule 20.11(2) is a minimum standard and does not prohibit a utility or association of utilities from issuing a notice requesting customers to reduce usage at any other time.
	 20.11(5) Annual report. Each electric utility required by subrule 20.11(2) to file a plan for customer notification shall file, on or before April 1 of each year, a report stating the number of notices given its customers, the dates when notices were issued, the annual cost of providing both general and direct notice to customers and measures of kilowatt hour demand at the time when notice was given and at hourly intervals thereafter until kilowatt hour demand decreases to the level at which it was measured when the notice was issued. The annual report shall also include a statement of any problems experienced by the utility in providing customer notification of a peak demand and a proposal to modify the plan, if necessary, to make customer notification more effective. Modifications must be approved by the board before they are implemented.