The Louisiana Public Service Commission has issued new rules governing the monitoring of utility decisions to retire or deactivate electric generating units. It detailed numerous instances of recent actions by utilities under its jurisdiction regarding the potential retirement or deactivation of generating units and pointed to earlier findings that actions affecting major generating investment by the state’s largest utility companies can have important and significant cost and reliability consequences, both positive and negative. Under the new rules, whenever a utility decides to retire or deactivate a generating unit that it owns in whole or in part it must file a report documenting the support and rationale for that decision regardless of where that unit is located. According to the commission the purpose of the report is to provide information regarding deactivation and retirement planning and decisions and information regarding the ongoing status and costs of units that have been deactivated but not retired. It emphasized that the filing requirements are not intended to and do not require commission preapproval of any deactivation or retirement decisions. Re Rulemaking Docket to Consider Whether or Not the Commission Should Exercise its Authority Over Future Utility Deactivation and Retirement Decisions, Docket No. R-34407, Oct. 19, 2018 (La.P.S.C.).