Advanced Energy United Reports

FERC Order 2222 requires exceptional coordination between distribution utilities, RTOs/ISOs, aggregators, and state regulators. This report, from Advanced Energy Economy and GridLab, a non-profit mission-driven electric grid consultancy group, provides a framework for state regulators to navigate key issues as utilities look to improve integration of distributed energy resources (DERs) into wholesale markets in the coming years.

This report outlines multiple use cases, each illustrating the benefits Order 2222 can unlock and how aggregated DER participation in wholesale markets can benefit everyone.

The existing capacity market constructs in PJM, ISO-NE, and NYISO do not account for state commitments and customer preferences for renewable or no-carbon resources, or the declining costs of advanced energy technologies. Indeed, existing capacity market rules can prevent or hamper clean energy-producing resources from clearing in the capacity market and counting toward resource adequacy needs. The result is a problematic and increasingly costly trend of divorcing the procurement of capacity to address resource adequacy needs from the procurement of clean energy needed to meet state and consumer demands. As clean energy demands continue to grow, this status quo will not be sustainable.

A new report from the Advanced Energy Buyers Group, a business-led coalition of large energy users facilitated by AEE, explains why organized competitive wholesale markets operated by Regional Transmission Organizations and Independent System Operators (RTOs/ISOs) are foundational to many of the strategies that large energy buyers rely on to increase their use of advanced energy and meet their sustainability targets.

Policymakers, utilities, and other stakeholders in the West are considering proposals to develop and expand broader regional wholesale market constructs. Electricity planning and resource procurement in the West is currently spread across 38 separate balancing authorities.

This is in contrast with several other regions of the country, where utilities and balancing authorities have joined together to rely on a single entity to ensure reliable operation of the grid, share resources over a broader geographic area, and use competition to drive efficient market operations.

On Oct. 30, 2019, AEE's General Counsel and Managing Director Jeff Dennis testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce Energy Subcommittee.

His submitted written and oral testimony summarizes the challenges facing advanced energy technologies to compete based on price and performance, and highlights opportunities for lawmakers and regulators to remove market barriers.