The report, produced by the Wind Solar Alliance in collaboration with Michael Goggin of Grid Strategies and Michael Milligan of Milligan Grid Solutions, was released yesterday, Wednesday, October 2, through a national press call.
The consulting firms Grid Strategies and Milligan Grid Solutions co-authored the report, Quantifying the Consumer Benefits of the Market Reforms in the Report “Customer Focused and Clean,” for the Wind Solar Alliance. It concludes that the average residential customer in the PJM region, which includes the Mid-Atlantic and Great Lakes, could save up to $47 annually with significantly more wind, solar and storage on the grid. Consumers in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) region, which includes 15 states and the Canadian province of Manitoba, could save up to $48 annually.
The report quantifies the consumer benefits provided by the primary market reforms recommended in the well-received Wind Solar Alliance report Customer Focused and Clean: Power Markets for the Future, which was released last November. That report qualitatively examined opportunities for improving outdated market and operating practices of grid operators in the MISO and PJM states.
In the current report, the authors describe their analysis and quantify some of the key market updates described in the previous report. The new report finds that electricity market reforms in the Midwest, Great Lakes, and Mid-Atlantic could save consumers over $6.9 billion every year. The report’s conclusions may have major implications for consumer advocates, large industrial companies, businesses, and homeowners in those regions.
The report assesses the potential for significant consumer savings through:
Ensuring the capacity value contributions of all resources are accounted for;
Improving the operational efficiency of bulk power markets by moving more resources away from self-scheduling;
Incentivizing flexibility in market design;
Removing artificial barriers preventing renewables, storage, and demand response from participating in markets; and
Improving the seams between markets, thereby lowering transaction costs of economic imports and exports between neighbouring systems.
“Consumers are looking for clean, affordable, and reliable energy that will keep their monthly electricity bills low” said Kristin Munsch, Deputy Director of the Illinois Citizens Utility Board and President of the Board of the Consumer Advocates of the PJM States, which represents over 65 million consumers in 13 states and the District of Columbia. “There is great potential to achieve those goals with the cost-effective integration of wind, solar, and storage plants into our wholesale power markets.”
For additional information:
Report: Quantifying the Consumer Benefits of the Market Reforms in the Report “Customer Focused and Clean
