Over the holidays, we stumbled across two good conversations on the Suncast podcast that we wanted to share with you. The first one looks at deregulating state electricity markets and the second on empowering consumers with the right to purchase clean energy.

At the Energy Choice Coalition, we believe competition is at the core of our free-market system and that a well-functioning market is driven by consumer choice. Competitive markets produce the most efficient results in our economy, providing lower costs and a greater array of choices for consumers compared to government regulation. We recently released a report that shows competition in electricity markets also leads to reduced carbon emissions.

We’ve long been dedicated followers of the great work of the DER Task Force and were excited to learn that the community is close to finalizing their first policy whitepaper and DER Bill of Rights. Expanding the rights of consumers is at the heart of our mission here at the Energy Choice Coalition, so we’re excited to have the DER Task Force engaged and eager to see what they come up with in the new year. In the meantime, we’ve been building our own list of principles of consumer choice. Check them out below and let us know your thoughts.

Consumers deserve electricity …

Consumers are critical in managing supply and demand on the electricity grid. Consumers have always been able to manage their energy consumption to varying degrees, but many are now generating their own electricity and have the ability to put excess power back onto the grid to help meet demand elsewhere on the system.

As the Department of Energy explains, “demand response programs are being used by some electric system planners and operators as resource options for balancing supply and demand. Such programs can lower the cost of electricity in wholesale markets, and in turn, lead to lower retail rates.”

A shadowy utility front group called Power for Tomorrow is supporting Dominion’s opposition to deregulation. One example of Power for Tomorrow’s pro-monopoly rhetoric is the mailing it sent out alleging the Virginia Assembly was considering a bill that would result in similar consequences as the Texas outages from last February, including extended outages and high electricity bills once customers regained power.

However, Virginia is part of the PJM wholesale market and the larger Eastern Interconnection, so the likelihood of the lack of available resources caused by severe weather is substantially lower, while most of Texas’ grid remains separate from the rest of the country. That said, the state is only partially deregulated, and only large commercial and industrial customers have the choice to procure their energy from other independent suppliers on the wholesale market.

This report presents a data-driven analysis to determine whether the existence of competitive wholesale markets is correlated with reduced carbon emissions from the power sector.

The rapid growth of generation from variable resources like wind and solar, along with the shift to more consumer-owned generation like rooftop solar and the changes that bring to demand, along with the political push to greater electrification of the economy, is prompting RTOs and ISOs to look at ways to improve their flexibility to maintain reliability.

When Hurricane Ida struck the state of Louisiana last month, nine people died because of "excessive heat during an extended power outage.” Residents like Wilma Banks, a former casino employee with cognitive heart disease and asthma, were dependent on their utility company to support them by powering their medical devices and HVAC systems during this time of need. But as days went on after the eye of the storm ripped through homes and livelihoods, power wasn’t restored.

Sadly, an investigation found that prior to the storm, Ms. Banks’ utility company, Entergy, “aggressively resisted efforts by regulators, residents and advocates to improve its infrastructure.”

Perhaps most sobering is that even in a state like Louisiana, where some of the nation’s most sever and unforgiving natural disasters hit, Entergy’s building stood tall over the city when one million residents remained without power for days on end.

The lingering power outage in New Orleans and surrounding areas served by the vertically integrated power company Entergy caused by Hurricane Ida is just the latest example of the lack of resilience in much of our nation’s power systems. One way to mitigate power disruptions is to develop more microgrids – isolated generation and delivery systems that can operate independently in a limited geographic area from the traditional regional grid.

Community solar is a less well-known but increasingly important option for deploying solar energy, particularly in densely populated urban areas where rooftop space is often shared by multiple tenants.

Community solar is consumer-owned power generation with a twist.

Instead of being owned by a utility, corporation or government, the ownership of these systems is shared by subscribers. Each subscriber gets credit for the generation produced equal to their percentage of ownership in the project. Shares can range from a single solar panel to a majority of the installation, but usually the largest share is less than 50 percent of the total project.

The continuance of utilities and politicians blocking competition from yielding a cleaner, more cost-effective electrical grid is on full display. And the scary truth is: the incentive for politicians to hang onto monopolies is too great. Without monopolies, their vehicle (regulated power rates) to get to their destination (expensive political goals) has no gas, wheels or engine.

Solar power’s influence and potential continues to be attacked by a web of unapologetic utilities, think tanks and associations determined to sink the implementation of rooftop solar power. In order to save their antiquated business model, powerful groups and utilities, from Consumer Energy Alliance to Edison Electric Institute, are lining up to push against the wishes of consumers for cleaner energy, despite the fact that solar is low cost, efficient and abundant.