Regulation, Utilities, Sourcing Renewables - August 23, 2019
Dominion ordered to let customers purchase from CSPs
The State Corporation Commission (SCC) of Virginia issued an order on August 21 that Virginia Electric and Power Company (Dominion) must immediately resume processing enrollment requests for customers who wish to purchase energy from Direct Energy Business or Calpine.
The order is in response to Dominion’s petition on July 15, 2019 seeking a determination to block customers from leaving Dominion because “a competitive service provider (CSP) must have control of sufficient renewable generation resources, including renewable capacity and association renewable energy, to enable it to provide the full load requirements of the customers it intends to serve.” Dominion argued that Direct Energy Business has not demonstrated that it can provide energy from 100% renewable sources.
The SCC will continue to evaluate Dominion’s petitions to determine if Calpine and Direct Energy Business’ promise to provide 100% renewable energy service meets state regulations. According to a report by Utility Dive, “The full capacity load of customers seeking to leave Dominion's service in favor of Calpine and Direct Energy is confidential, but it is evident interest has grown since the utility halted processing enrollments.”
Costco and Kroger have each filed to object to Dominion’s petition of Calpine, arguing that the CSP'sRE offering is viable.
Utility Dive noted, “Only business customers with a load greater than 5 MW of electricity can apply to leave Dominion's service, leaving the smaller energy customers "captive." Regulators earlier this year denied the exit applications from Walmart and Costco, citing concerns over impacts to other ratepayers from the exit of some of Dominion's largest customers.”
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