Rhode Island’s Public Utilities Commission has opened a docket (Docket No. 4545) to review electric rate issues in anticipation of a successor docket that must be opened by July 1, 2015, to “consider rate design and distribution cost allocation among rate classes in light of net metering and the changing distribution system that is expected to include more distributed-energy resources, including, but not limited to, distributed generation.” This requirement was included in legislation enacted in June 2014 (S.B. 2690) that overhauled, expanded and renamed the state’s existing program — now known as the Renewable Energy Growth program — to support distributed renewables with performance-based incentives. The current docket will serve as vehicle for gathering information and providing public access to that information.