Virginia Formally Launches Pilot Program Allowing Customers To Aggregate Non-Contiguous Sites To Take Competitive Retail Electric Supply (Implements Previously Reported Legislation)

June 11, 2020

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Reporting by Paul Ring • ring@energychoicematters.com

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The Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) formally announced that it is launching a pilot program, in the Dominion Energy Virginia service area, under which those commercial customers, who previously sought to aggregate their non-contiguous load, may shop for competitive electricity supply

Recently adopted legislation requiring the SCC to conduct such a pilot program -- open to 8 customers -- had been first reported by EnergyChoiceMatters.com (see story here)

Effective July 1, legislation approved by the 2020 Virginia General Assembly (HB 889, Chapter 796 of the 2020 Acts of the Assembly) directed the Commission to conduct the pilot program and caps the program at 200 megawatts (MW).

The pilot is open to customers who previously applied at the SCC to aggregate their loads to take competitive retail electric supply. Such customers who have applied to the SCC for non-contiguous aggregation to take competitive supply have included Walmart, Costco, Target, Harris Teeter, Kroger, Safeway, and Cox.

Pilot-eligible commercial customers may file a notice of intent to participate with the SCC at any time. If the 200 MW is reached, however, no further notices will be accepted.

Prior to February 25, 2019, the SCC received multiple requests from large commercial customers for permission to pool together the load of their separately metered retail stores to purchase electricity from third-party suppliers.

A provision of Virginia law mandates that a single customer with more than 5 MW of demand can leave the utility system and purchase power from a third-party supplier. The new program allows the eligible customers to combine loads from non-contiguous sites to reach this 5 MW threshold

The law requires the Commission to evaluate the pilot program in 2022.

Case PUR-2020-00114

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