FERC Reconsidering Limits On Retail Regulator Control Over Aggregating Demand Response

In a recent order, FERC pulled back, for now, its decision to sharply limit the ability of retail regulators to prohibit distributed energy resource (DER) aggregators from bidding retail customer demand response (DR) into wholesale markets.  Instead, the issue will be considered in  an ongoing inquiry that is addressing whether to totally eliminate the ability of retail regulators to keep retail DR resource offers out of FERC-jurisdictional wholesale markets.

Offering retail customer DR into wholesale markets raises sensitive Federal-state jurisdictional issues.  While all five commissioners voted to set aside the prior decision, the three Republican commissioners issued separate statements with differing views of retail regulator control of DR offers into wholesale markets.  Commissioner Chatterjee would not allow retail regulators to keep DR resources out of wholesale markets while Commissioners Danly and Christie would.