The State Corporation Commission is launching a pilot program that is open to commercial customers of Dominion Energy Virginia who previously sought to aggregate their load to shop for electricity supply service.
Effective July 1, legislation approved by the 2020 Virginia General Assembly (HB 889, Chapter 796 of the 2020 Acts of the Assembly) directs the Commission to conduct the pilot program and caps the program at 200 megawatts (MW).
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 vendor. Individually, a single retail store unlikely meets the threshold. The 5 MW of demand could be met by combining the load of multiple store locations that are owned by a single entity.
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.
The law requires the Commission to evaluate the pilot program in 2022.
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Chris Graham
