A complaint filed with the federal agency that regulates electricity markets could result in a dozen other states following Illinois’ model allowing companies to sell their extra solar energy for a profit, pushing electric rates downward for consumers.
When a warehouse in Illinois has extra power from their on-site solar panels, they can use a company called an aggregator to sell that excess power on a regional wholesale market called the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, or MISO wholesale market. MISO powers Illinois outside of the Chicago region and parts of 15 other states.
Only Illinois and two other states allow these third-party aggregators to sell back energy on MISO.
EarthJustice, a nonprofit environmental law firm, filed a complaint on behalf of Voltus, a demand response aggregator that sells that energy for companies on markets like MISO, with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Tuesday. They’re seeking to remove the other prohibitions.
“What we’re trying to do here is unleash competition on the market, which we think is a good thing here,” said Aaron Stemplewicz, staff attorney at Earthjustice.
Some states allow aggregator companies like Voltus to participate but only if the terms of the agreement are largely set by the other utilities that sell on the market, the complaint states.
MISO responded to the complaint Wednesday.
MISO’s tariff, including provisions related to Demand Response, was accepted by FERC and we believe that it continues to meet legal and regulatory requirements,” said Andre Porter, MISO General Counsel. “We will respond to the complaint at FERC and provide any assistance in understanding the issues as FERC may direct.”
Should FERC agree, the change could allow Voltus and others to expand their services in Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Iowa, Arkansas, and the Canadian Province of Manitoba.
“In MISO broadly, Voltus calculates that it could deliver the same amount of demand response currently delivered by utilities for approximately $118 million, delivering a savings to ratepayers of $130 million per year while elevating the quality of that demand response substantially,” the complaint states.
