Utility Dive outlined FERC’s request for clarity regarding the SEEM proposal, quoting AEE’s Jeff Dennis on the regulator’s questions. Read snippets below and the full story here.

Federal regulators sent Southeast utilities back to the drawing board last week on their proposal to develop a centralized energy exchange market. 

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission told Duke Energy, Southern Company, Dominion Energy and other utilities in the region that their proposal to create a Southeast Energy Exchange Market (SEEM) was "deficient" and needs significantly more details in order for regulators to determine what kind of impact it might have on the region. Specifically, the commission asked utilities to clarify how exactly the proposal will improve existing energy transactions in the Southeast, and for greater transparency in how the market changes will work…

In its May 4 directive, FERC asked the utilities to detail how the proposal would save customers money, and how exactly pricing will be determined. It also asks the utilities to clarify how the proposal might impact their existing market power in the Southeast and for more specifics on what the governance structure might look like, echoing many of the concerns raised by the renewables industry.

"It's a detailed set of questions," said Jeff Dennis, managing director and general counsel at Advanced Energy Economy, one of the intervenors in the case. "It's going to require the utilities to really provide a lot of detail to the commission on price transparency and how this thing won't result in the extension of market power in the region ... Utilities are going to have to explain how this is going to enhance market activities beyond the status quo."

Further, Dennis said, the commission's response shows they won't accept the utilities proposal "at face value … The utilities are going to have to demonstrate the value here."

For AEE and clean energy industry groups including the Solar Energy Industries Association, the Advanced Energy Buyers Group and the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance, who filed comments as a coalition, the big question remains as to whether this proposal is a "stepping stone" toward more competition or whether it will "retrench" the status quo of the region.

Read the full story here.