National Clean Energy Coalition Urges FERC to Carefully Examine Southeast Utilities’ Proposed Electricity Trading Platform and Host a Regional Technical Conference on Wholesale Market Reform Needs

Filing proposes ways to make Southeast electricity market design more inclusive, transparent, and cost-efficient for customers, laying foundation for broader market reforms in the region.

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 16, 2021 — Today, national associations Advanced Energy Economy (AEE), Advanced Energy Buyers Group (AEBG), Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance (REBA), and Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) announced they have submitted joint comments to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) asking regulators to closely examine shortcomings in the Southeast Energy Exchange Market (SEEM) proposal, which 14 electric utilities submitted to FERC in February 2021.

Representing a broad coalition of clean electricity customers and developers, the groups explain that it is not clear whether SEEM, as proposed, will provide customers in the Southeast with promised modest cost benefits. It is also unclear whether SEEM will be a step toward answering the call of state leaders and customers in the region for competitive regional wholesale markets that allow them to cost-effectively develop and access clean energy supplies.

The coalition pointed to the need for more detailed information regarding the proposed market design and advocated for modifications that would enhance transparency, governance and consumer protections within SEEM. Specifically, the comments urge FERC to:

1. Require the utilities to supplement their filing with additional implementation details that are necessary to determine whether SEEM is just and reasonable;
2. Consider modifications to the proposed SEEM design that enhance market and stakeholder protections; and
3. Initiate a joint conference with state regulators and energy officials to convene broader discussions on the future of wholesale markets and transmission integration in the Southeast.

“The SEEM proposal falls far short of the wholesale market reforms that states and customers in the Southeast need to help them take advantage of low-cost advanced energy supplies and achieve their decarbonization goals,” said Jeff Dennis, Managing Director and General Counsel at AEE, which also facilitates the policy work of AEBG. “The electricity grid of the future requires a new approach to wholesale market and transmission access in the Southeast, and FERC should approach the SEEM, and subsequent conversations with leaders in the region about the future of its markets, with that in mind.”

“As customers increasingly make bold sustainability commitments that require access to clean and renewable energy, we support more competitive wholesale market options in the Southeast to help satisfy growing demand for clean energy in the region,” said Bryn Baker, Director of Policy at REBA. “We want to be sure that SEEM is designed to be a building block, and not a stumbling block, in the path to an affordable clean energy future that will benefit everyone.”

“The SEEM proposal fails to encourage competition, the most essential function of an energy market,” said Gizelle Wray, Director of Regulatory Affairs at SEIA. “To efficiently serve ratepayers in the Southeast, a regional energy market must embrace all generators, including renewable energy, and offer both long-term cost savings and a significant reduction in carbon emissions. This proposal only brushes the surface of what’s possible, and we urge FERC to reject this anti-competitive framework.”

The organizations note that their members support the expansion of competitive wholesale electricity market frameworks in the Southeast. They point to a recent study indicating that a fully competitive regional wholesale market in the Southeast would provide significant benefits to the region, well above those benefits expected to be realized through the SEEM proposal.

The business groups’ joint comments are available here.