Advanced Energy Management Alliance (“AEMA”) is thrilled that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) has taken a decision on the long-pending Distributed Energy Resource Rulemaking with Order 2222, opening markets fully to distributed energy resource participation. AEMA commends the leadership of Chairman Chatterjee, the support of Commissioner Glick, and the hard work of all the staff at FERC. AEMA believes that a participation model for consumers and distributed energy resources enables crucial cost savings, flexibility, resilience, and environmental benefits to the grid. FERC requiring those participation models in the organized markets will allow full engagement by consumer-sited resources, ensuring a more competitive system for all participants.
AEMA advocates for policies that empower and compensate customers appropriately–to contribute energy or energy-related services or to manage their energy usage–in a manner which contributes to a more efficient, cost-effective, resilient, reliable, and environmentally sustainable grid. Our members are providers and consumers of distributed energy resources, including demand response and advanced energy management, united to overcome barriers to nationwide use of demand-side resources. AEMA has been engaged in this rulemaking process since FERC opened the process for distributed energy as separate from energy storage, filing Post-Technical Conference comments in June 2018 on DER participation and Supplemental Comments in March 2019 noting recently successful distributed energy resource projects and programs. AEMA has been working through ISO stakeholder processes to encourage development of distributed energy resource participation but has also worked with state regulators and utilities to develop solutions through retail and state markets. Our members believe that customer-sited resources should be valued for the benefits they bring to the grid and that more competition and choice for customers enhances those benefits for all resources on the grid.