Power Magazine reported on the historic FERC vote directing RTOs and ISOs to embrace DERs, quoting AEE's Jeff Dennis. Read excerpts below and the entire Power Magazine piece here.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued an order that advocates for distributed energy resources (DERs) say will enable DERs, including renewable energy such as solar, wind, and battery storage, to compete on a more-level playing field in the organized capacity, energy, and ancillary services markets run by regional grid operators.
FERC Order No. 2222, adopted Sept. 17 by a 2-1 vote of the commission, directs regional transmission organizations and independent system operators to open their electricity markets to participation by DERs. FERC, in a fact sheet issued after announcing the order, said the new rule “enables DERs to participate alongside traditional resources in the regional organized wholesale markets through aggregations, opening U.S. organized wholesale markets to new sources of energy and grid services. It will help provide a variety of benefits including: lower costs for consumers through enhanced competition, more grid flexibility and resilience, and more innovation within the electric power industry...”

FERC Chairman Neil Chatterjee and commissioner Richard Glick voted in favor of the order, with commissioner James Danly dissenting. The order will take effect 90 days after publication in the Federal Register, and grid operators must make compliance filings to FERC within 270 days of the effective date...

Jeff Dennis, managing director and general counsel for the Advanced Energy Economy business group, in a statement said, “We applaud FERC for taking this critical and long-awaited step to open competitive wholesale electricity markets to distributed energy resources. Having worked on this important rulemaking since 2016, we are thrilled that FERC has now taken action to reduce barriers to these technology innovations in wholesale markets.

“While we are still reviewing the details of the Commission’s decision, it appears that FERC has delivered a welcome and much needed win for U.S. consumers — as Chairman Chatterjee said this morning, ‘When DER aggregations line up and compete with traditional resources to provide all the energy, ancillary services, and capacity that they have to offer — consumers win.’ We couldn’t agree more,” Dennis said...

Read the entire Power Magazine piece here.