The Energy Choice Coalition backed efforts urging the Department of Energy to create a program to assist states in developing wholesale electricity markets. The successful creation of such a program would increase grid reliability, drive down consumer costs and speed up the transition to renewable energy.
“A dedicated program at the Department of Energy will provide states with the tools needed to expand competition in electricity markets and hasten the transition to cleaner energy and deliver the greatest possible benefits to consumers,” said Robert Dillon, the executive director of the Energy Choice Coalition.
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DOE pressured on market program for renewables
Meanwhile, a coalition of renewable energy groups, regional nonprofits and a trade group representing electric power companies suggested that DOE create a program to assist states in developing wholesale electricity markets, which it said are needed to deploy more renewable energy.
DOE should establish a program within its Office of Electricity that could provide technical and financial assistance to states interested in joining or forming regional transmission organizations, the coalition said in the letter, sent Wednesday.
Signatories included the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Electric Power Supply Association, Advanced Energy Economy and the R Street Institute, a conservative-leaning nonprofit, as well as regional clean energy groups from the southeastern and northwestern United States.
Organized wholesale electricity markets, which generally include RTOs and independent system operators, have helped speed up the transition to renewable electricity, while ensuring grid reliability, supporting energy efficiency measures and saving customers money, the groups said in the letter.
But portions of the West and Southeast lack such markets, the groups wrote to the Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate and House, as well as the chairs and ranking members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
A program at DOE could support states already trying to form markets on their own, according to the law. This year, for example, new laws have been enacted in Nevada and Colorado to require transmission providers to join RTOs or wholesale markets by 2030. Separately, utilities in the Southeast have proposed a new electricity trading platform called the Southeast Energy Exchange Market.
“As states across the west and southeast lead the way, exploring options to evaluate, develop, and expand organized wholesale electricity markets, they would benefit from increased coordination with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity (DOE-OE),” the letter said.
The letter comes at the same time as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is being pressured to take up the issue. Last month, nine former commissioners at the independent agency sent a letter to FERC encouraging it to “finish the job of setting up organized wholesale power markets” nationwide.
“A dedicated program at the Department of Energy will provide states with the tools needed to expand competition in electricity markets and hasten the transition to cleaner energy and deliver the greatest possible benefits to consumers,” Robert Dillon, the executive director of the Energy Choice Coalition, which signed the letter, said in a statement.”