Regulatory change management for utilities: every adopted rule redlined against the rule in force, and every changed clause mapped to the procedures, systems and owners it touches, the morning after it is published
Each rule change mapped to the processes it touches the morning after it is adopted.
See one case, screen by screen ↓A utility answers to its state commission, to federal agencies, to the legislature and, in practice, to what its peers file. Rulemakings are often buried in administrative dockets, so a regulatory analyst checks commission portals and alert emails by hand, and a change filed in an unrelated docket can be missed. Thomson Reuters Regulatory Intelligence estimated about 234 regulatory alerts a day in 2022.
Finding the order is the easy part. Then someone has to compare the adopted text with the rule in force, find every procedure, letter, call script, billing-system setting and report it touches, find each owner and agree a date that beats the effective date and the year-end change freeze. That runs on email and spreadsheets for weeks. And a missed notice clause is exactly what regulators fine: notice failures cost one utility $500,000 and another $840,000, with more than 4,000 customers not properly notified.
Estimated split of the demo utility's 19-day median by hand in 2025, against its 4-day median with the agents in 2026. Calendar days.
Six agents watch, rank, redline and map every rule change to the work it touches; the compliance manager signs.
On Oct 9, 2026 the Calder Public Service Commission adopted Order 26-0412 in rulemaking docket R-26-0147, rewriting Rule 20-6-412, Disconnection of residential service. The order was issued Oct 12 and takes effect Jan 15, 2027. Lumina Utilities serves electric and water customers in the territory. It is Tuesday Oct 13, with 94 days to go. Here is what happens, screen by screen, in the working solution.
The Docket watcher reads 63 sources: commission dockets and orders, the Calder Register, the legislature, federal notices and 18 peer utility filings. The Relevance ranker scores Order 26-0412 at 97 — electric and water, residential, Lumina on the service list, and 6 obligations in the register cite the rule. Seven items clear the alert threshold; a gas pipeline odorant rule scores 12 and is kept, with its reason.
Kept for the record: “Lumina has no gas service” — every low score keeps its reason.
The Redline builder compares the 14-page order with the 2019 text clause by clause: 6 clauses changed, 4 amended and 2 new, every word quoted. The Impact mapper links them to 6 obligations, 9 procedures, 5 system changes, 3 policies and 7 owners, with confidence of 89–97 %. The Effort estimator puts the work at 548 hours, done Jan 6 with 9 days to spare.
“Plan writer drafted 19 tasks and 7 summaries — waiting for Elena. Nothing is sent until the impact map is signed.”
Clause (3)(a) moves written notice from ten to twenty calendar days before disconnection, and adds text or email where the customer chose it. In the graph, 4 procedures light up — the collections notice run, disconnect scheduling, payment arrangement offers and the disconnection notice letters — with 2 system changes, policy CC-04 and 4 owners: Ruth Adeyemi, Hana Sato, Diego Ramos and Tom Kessler.
“…at least twenty (20) calendar days before the date of disconnection, by first-class mail and, where the customer has chosen to receive notices by text message or email, by that means as well.”
The effort card lists seven tasks for the clause, 186 hours over 9 weeks, finishing Dec 15. Two are billing-system work for Tom Kessler: moving the final-notice trigger from day 10 to day 20 (60 h, Dec 10) and sending disconnect notices by text and email (46 h, Dec 15). Both are flagged as system work that must land before the Dec 18 change freeze.
“Billing changes must be live before the Dec 18 freeze: the day-20 trigger ends Dec 10 and text and email notices Dec 15, three days before it.”
Northvale Power & Light filed its compliance plan for Order 26-0412 on Oct 12. It moves the final notice to day 24 after the bill so the 20 days end on a business day, sends text notices only to customers who opt in before Dec 1, and asks for 60 days' grace on the first ZIP-code report. Elena compares it with Lumina's plan, which files a test report by Jan 6.
In the obligations register, the six affected rows carry the new text, the owner and the control that proves it: OB-412-01, at least 20 days' written notice, owned by Ruth Adeyemi and checked by a monthly sample of 50 notices; OB-412-03, no disconnection in forecast cold of 32 °F or below or a 95 °F heat advisory, owned by Hana Sato with a daily weather hold report. The rest of the register stays in force.
The implementation plan runs from today to Jan 15: 19 tasks, 548 hours, 7 owners, grouped by clause, with the Dec 18 – Jan 4 change freeze and the effective date drawn across the timeline. Each owner's hours are set against what they have free to Jan 6; Hana Sato and Nikhil Rao are at 80 % and Tom Kessler at 76 %, above the 75 % warning line.
Elena asks the assistant to add a task: retrain care agents on the new notice script. It lands under clause (3)(c) for Amara Okoye, 16 hours, Dec 7 – Dec 22, after the CS-14 script update. The plan now has 20 tasks and 564 hours and still finishes Jan 6, with 9 days to spare.
“Retrain care agents on the new notice script · Amara · Dec 22 · 16 h”
The approval screen shows the 6 clauses, 20 tasks to 7 owners, the plan done Jan 6, and 6 obligations updated effective Jan 15, 2027. System work comes to 250 hours, over the 200-hour line, so Marcus Bell is asked to co-sign. Elena signs with her password and the meaning “I confirm this impact map is complete and assign the tasks”.
Agents read, rank, redline, map, estimate and draft — they never sign or send.
The Plan writer sends 20 tasks to 7 owners and one summary to each business unit, every line citing its clause: Credit and Collections, Field Operations, Billing Systems, Customer Communications, Customer Care, Water Customer Services and Regulatory Reporting. Billing Systems has already acknowledged. The register is updated, and Marcus Bell gets a one-page board summary.
“Signed — 20 tasks sent to 7 owners · Marcus Bell asked to co-sign”
The same order, seen by the five people who carry it — what a rule change looked like before, and what it looks like now.
Six agents watch, rank, redline and map every rule change to the work it touches; the compliance manager signs.
Every morning at 05:30, reads new items from 63 sources — commission dockets and orders, the state register, bills, federal notices and peer filings — and captures the docket, the document, the dates and the full text.
Scores each item 0–100 against the utility's services, territory, customer classes and the obligations that cite the same rule, and gives the reason in one line.
Finds the rule in force in the administrative code, aligns the adopted text clause by clause and marks deletions and insertions word by word, flagging new clauses and renumbering.
Links each changed clause to the obligations that cite it, the procedures, letters and scripts that carry them out, the policies behind them and the system settings that implement them, names the owner from the register and gives a confidence and the evidence for each link.
Estimates hours and weeks for each impact from 214 past changes, lays the tasks out against owner capacity and change freezes, and warns when the plan has less than 5 business days of slack or an owner is above 75 %.
Writes one task per change with an owner, hours and dates, a summary for each business unit and one page for the board, citing the clause behind every statement.
Signs the map; the director co-signs big system work. The agents propose; a named person decides.
Ask about any rule change, clause, owner or deadline — or say what to change. Every answer points to its clause.
What does the new rule change for water customers?
Three clauses reach water service. Weather protection is new: no water shutoff when the forecast is 32 °F or below, or a 95 °F heat advisory is in effect, within 24 hours and for 48 hours after. That changes Owen Price's water shutoff procedure W-OPS-07 and the weather hold in field scheduling. The 20-day notice and the 60-day medical certificate apply to water accounts too.
Will we be ready by January 15?
Yes, with 9 days to spare: the last task, the first test of the ZIP-code report, ends Jan 6. The risk is the change freeze from Dec 18: the day-20 trigger ends Dec 10 and text and email notices Dec 15, three days before it. Hana Sato is at 80 % of her free hours.
How did Northvale handle the 20-day notice?
Northvale Power & Light filed its plan for the same order on Oct 12. It moves the final notice to day 24 after the bill, so the 20 days always end on a business day, and sends text notices only to customers who opt in before Dec 1. It also asks for 60 days' grace on the first ZIP-code report. Lumina's plan files a test report by Jan 6, so no grace is needed.
Add a task: retrain care agents on the new notice script
Added to §412(3)(c): Retrain care agents on the new notice script, owner Amara Okoye, 16 hours, Dec 7 – Dec 22, after the script update CS-14. The plan now has 20 tasks and 564 hours and still finishes Jan 6, with 9 days to spare.
13 screens from the working solution, on its sample data. Pick one to see it large.
What applies to the utility, who signs, and how the plan is checked are settings, chosen by the regulatory team.
| Setting | Default | Choose from |
|---|---|---|
| Services | Electric · Water | Electric · Water · Gas — changes to other services are kept, scored low, with the reason |
| Alert threshold | 70 of 100 | 60 · 70 · 80 of 100 — items below it go in the weekly digest (from 40) |
| Signs each impact map | Elena Varga | Elena Varga · Marcus Bell — electronic signature, with the meaning recorded |
| Co-signs when system work exceeds | 200 hours · Marcus Bell | 200 hours · 400 hours — billing, field and reporting system changes together |
| Legal review | On | On · Off — counsel reads the redline of any adopted rule before it is signed |
| Change freeze | Dec 18 – Jan 4 | Dec 18 – Jan 4 · Dec 21 – Jan 2 — system changes must be live before it starts |
| Finish ahead of the effective date by at least | 5 business days | 5 · 10 business days — the effort estimator warns when the plan has less slack |
| Owners acknowledge within | 3 business days | 3 · 5 business days — a reminder first, then the owner's director |
Every figure is labelled: a target the solution is built to, an estimate, a typical published result, or a proven one.
“demo” = seen in the working solution, on its sample data · “target” = the design goal, measured in the live solution · “estimated” = our estimate · “typical” = published figures: Maine PUC, $500,000 fine on Central Maine Power for winter disconnection notices (2020); Michigan PSC, $840,000 DTE Energy settlement, 4,000+ customers without a proper shut-off notice (2018); Thomson Reuters Regulatory Intelligence, an estimated 234 regulatory alerts a day (2022). The fines show what is at stake, not savings. Lumina Utilities, the Calder Public Service Commission, Northvale Power & Light, the orders, dockets and the people named on this page are fictional — characters and sample data in the working solution.
It is the work of finding every new or changed rule that applies to a utility, working out what it changes in the utility's procedures, letters, systems and reports, and getting that work owned and done before the rule takes effect. Regulatory Change Management does it with six agents that watch, rank, redline and map each change; the compliance manager reviews the map and signs.
Every morning the Docket watcher reads the sources you choose — 63 in the demo, from commission dockets to peer filings. The Relevance ranker scores each item against your services, customer classes and obligations register. For an adopted rule, the Redline builder compares it with the rule in force, the Impact mapper links each changed clause to the work it touches, the Effort estimator sizes it and the Plan writer drafts the tasks.
It scores each item 0–100 against your territory profile — services, customer classes, counties — and the obligations that cite the same rule, and gives the reason in one line. Items at or above the alert threshold reach you the same morning; the rest go in the weekly digest. Nothing is dropped: a rule for a service you do not offer is kept, scored low, with the reason.
No. The Redline builder quotes the rule text and marks the struck and added words against the rule in force, clause by clause. Counsel reviews every adopted redline before the map is signed, and every summary line cites its clause.
The Effort estimator estimates hours from past changes, lays the tasks out against each owner's free hours and your change freezes, and warns when the plan has less than the slack you set or an owner is above 75 %. In the demo, the disconnection order's 548 hours finish Jan 6, 9 days before it takes effect, with the billing changes landing before the Dec 18 freeze.
Yes. The agents propose links, estimates and drafts; owners confirm the links that touch their work, and the compliance manager signs the impact map with the meaning of the signature recorded. The agents never file, comment or contact a regulator, never assign or close a task, and send nothing before the map is signed.
Yes. Open proceedings lists the dockets where the utility can still be heard, with comment, testimony and hearing dates for the next eight weeks, the utility's position and the lead. It drafts a comment outline with citations for the lead to work from; nothing is filed by the agents.
The Agentic Solution Engine builds and deploys it from your requirements and documents — your obligations register, procedures and policies, the sources you watch and a sample of past rule changes — and it goes live once every quality gate has passed. We will walk you through it on a recent order from your own commission first.
Every data request answered on time, with one number for one thing.
1-min demoRegulatory Precedent SearchEvery filing position backed by how regulators actually ruled, cited and trended.
1-min demoRegulatory Commitment TrackingEvery directive owned and dated within a day of the order, and closed with its proof.
1-min demoWe'll run Regulatory Change Management on a recent order from your own commission and your own obligations register.