To Green the Electric Transmission System, Federal Regulators Should Foster Competition, Reject Anti-Competitive Utility Proposals, OPC Says
BALTIMORE – With electric transmission costs already high for consumers, competition should be the driving force to ensure consumers are not overburdened with unreasonable costs related to the greening of the electric power grid, the Office of People’s Counsel said in comments this week to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. FERC should reject anti-competitive utility proposals that secure their monopoly control, reduce transparency, and harm consumers, OPC told the agency.
“Significant transmission upgrades are needed to facilitate renewable energy, protect consumers, boost reliability and resilience, and efficiently transform the electric power system,” People’s Counsel David S. Lapp said. “FERC should foster competition for new transmission projects as a primary tool for making sure that consumers are not unfairly burdened with billions in extra costs. It should reject incumbent utility proposals that would undermine competition and entrench monopoly control.”
OPC filed its comments in FERC’s rulemaking proceeding on the future of the transmission grid. FERC’s proceeding focuses on integrating renewable energy generators to the existing grid, which largely has been built for large fossil-fuel and nuclear generation.
OPC joined two sets of comments to FERC, one led by the Connecticut Attorney General’s office that included the Office of the Attorney General of Maryland, and another comprised of a diverse coalition of large energy consumers and consumer advocates, among others. Both sets of comments took issue with incumbent utility transmission-owner proposals for the right to opt out of competitive bidding for transmission projects. They pointed to FERC’s own support of competition as a means of protecting consumers and to evidence that competition for transmission projects has produced consumer benefits.
OPC’s filings also called on FERC to create regional “independent transmission monitors” to improve regulatory oversight of transmission system costs and planning, to provide a check against the exercise of market power, and to increase transparency.
“In the coming years, billions of dollars will be invested in the transmission system to create the electric grid of the future and reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Lapp said. “It is critical that FERC acts decisively to ensure customers and the environment benefit. This requires rejecting the anti-competitive proposals of transmission-owning utilities.”
The Maryland Office of People’s Counsel is an independent state agency that represents Maryland’s residential consumers of electric, natural gas, telecommunications, private water and certain transportation matters before the Public Service Commission, federal regulatory agencies and the courts.
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