In an increasingly changing energy world, state energy markets vary widely in how they allow companies to compete for and retain customers. And that's beginning to matter more in states with large retail customers in a (mostly) regulated vertical energy market, such as in Virginia. 

Dominion Energy, the state's dominant utility, in May filed an application with the State Corporation Commission (SCC) for approval of its 100% renewable energy tariff. If approved, that tariff offering would prevent other retail electricity providers from competing in the market to give large and residential customers a 100% renewable option.

Virginia customers are only able to procure energy outside Dominion through two routes: If a customer has a load larger than 5 MW, it can apply to exit through the SCC. Or, customers of any size can shop for a 100% energy product from competitive services providers (CSPs).

Two CSPs — Direct Energy and Calpine Energy — have been soliciting business customers in the state to offer a 100% renewable energy package. On July 15, Dominion terminated processing all current and future interconnection applications with those CSPs, citing concerns over their ability to provide that offering to customers...

"There are sort of two fights," Harrison Godfrey, executive director of Advanced Energy Economy's Virginia chapter told Utility Dive. "One is this very technical fight" around qualifying the CSPs to deliver renewable energy into Dominion's load zone, he said. 

"That's a concern in of itself — obstruction by bureaucracy and slow walking these processes. That coincides with a concern about whether or not you essentially get the introduction of a tariff … that closes down the 100% market for consumers large and small, but provides them with an option that is substandard or does not meet their specific requirements."

"Virginia is a little unique," said Godfrey. The state currently operates under a "hybrid" market, somewhere between regulated and deregulated, he told Utility Dive...

Written comments on the application are due by Nov. 14 and a public hearing to receive testimony on Dominion's Tariff is scheduled for Nov. 21.

Read the entire UD story here.