CHARLOTTE — Duke Energy Corp. and as many as 20 other companies are engaged in early talks to create a common Southeastern energy market designed to ease wholesale electricity sales.
The companies include major players like the several utilities of the Southern Co., Dominion Energy Inc.‘s electric utility in South Carolina and the Tennessee Valley Authority. It also involves smaller players like state utility Santee Cooper, the N.C. Electric Membership Corp. and and the N.C. municipal utilities of ElectriCities.
Southern Co. has been the prime mover in this effort to sound out its neighbors about a regional cooperation agreement — similar to the Western Energy Imbalance Market that covers parts of seven western states and western Canada, but less restrictive. Southern and Duke confirmed the early stage talks Tuesday.
“Benefits could include cost savings for customers, better integration of renewables — including fewer curtailments intermittent resources — and potentially increased reliability,” Kendal Bowman, Duke’s vice president for regulatory affairs, told a Monday meeting of stakeholders working on Gov. Roy Cooper’s Executive Order 80, designed to create an energy plan to address climate change in North Carolina.
Such a multi-utility agreement could be a first step in the direction of a structured market in the Southeast.
What could that mean for customers and for increased use of renewable energy sources?
Cox Media Group
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