June 17, 2021
Docket No. RM18-9-003
Order: E-4
I concur with the first sentence of Paragraph 26 and other provisions of the order which set “aside our prior decision [in Order No. 2222-A] not to extend the Order No. 719 opt-out to demand response resources that participate in heterogeneous distributed energy resource aggregations. . . .”[1]
As the second sentence in Paragraph 26 and other provisions in today’s order indicate, however, there is no decision affirmatively to preserve those Order No. 719 opt-out provisions;[2] on the contrary, the prospect of ultimately removing even these opt-out provisions is very much alive as a result of the NOI proceeding in Docket No. RM21-14-000.[3]
Beyond the parts of this order that restore, at least temporarily, those opt-out provisions, I dissent from the remainder of the order, because I would have voted against Order No. 2222 had I been a member of the Commission at that time and I did vote against Order No. 2222-A. As I said in my dissent to the latter:
Today the majority . . . sides against the consumers who for years to come will almost surely pay billions of dollars for grid expenditures likely to be rate-based in the name of “Order 2222 compliance.”
. . .
Sadly, instead of making the states, municipal and public-power authorities and electric co-operatives truly equal partners in managing the timing and conditions of deployment of behind-the-meter DERs in ways that are sensitive to local needs and challenges – both technical and economic – today’s order denies them any meaningful control by prohibiting any opt-out or opt-in options except in relatively tiny circumstances. This order – and its predecessor – intentionally seize from the states and other authorities their historic authority to balance the competing interests of deploying new technologies while maintaining grid reliability and protecting consumers from unaffordable costs. . . .[4]
To ameliorate at least some of the damaging effects caused by Order Nos. 2222 and 2222-A, I would authorize states and other RERRAs the right to exercise an opt-out from the requirements of those orders, if not permanently then at least for some period of years to enable them better to prepare for the impacts on retail customers and distribution grids they now face.
For these reasons, I respectfully concur in part and dissent in part.
[1] Participation of Distributed Energy Resource Aggregations in Markets Operated by Regional Transmission Organizations and Independent System Operators, Order No. 2222, 85 FR 67094 (Oct. 1, 2020), 172 FERC ¶ 61,247 (2020), corrected, 85 FR 68450 (Oct. 29, 2020), order on reh’g, Order No. 2222-A, 174 FERC 61,197 (2021), order on reh’g and clarification, Order No. 2222-B, 175 FERC ¶ 61,227, at P 26 (2021).
[2] Order No. 2222-B at P 26.
[3] Participation of Aggregators of Retail Demand Response Customers in Markets Operated by Regional Transmission Organizations and Independent System Operators, Notice of Inquiry, 174 FERC ¶ 61,198 (2021) (NOI); see also Order No. 2222-B at P 28.
[4] Order No. 2222-A (Christie, Comm’r, dissenting at PP 1, 3 (emphasis in original) (footnotes omitted) (available at https://www.ferc.gov/news-events/news/item-e-1-commissioner-mark-c-christie-dissent-regarding-participation-distributed)).