The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Friday reaffirmed transmission rules that govern the functioning of the Southeast Energy Exchange Market, a trading platform for utility companies such as Southern Co., Dominion Energy and Duke Energy across the Southeast.
SEEM isn’t a “loose power pool” that would potentially require different rules, according to FERC. Also, the market doesn’t unfairly limit competition, the agency said in its unanimous decision.
SEEM, which was launched in November 2022, allows its members to make automated bilateral trades every 15 minutes using available transmission capacity.
In July 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in a split decision said FERC’s approval of the transmission rules for the market was “inconsistent” with the agency’s open access requirements. The court also remanded FERC’s earlier decision approving the overall SEEM market.
Groups challenging FERC’s approval of the market included Advanced Energy United, the Solar Energy Industries Association and the Clean Energy Buyers Association as well as the Natural Resources Defense Council, Energy Alabama; Georgia Interfaith Power and Light, North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association, Partnership for Southern Equity, Sierra Club, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, South Carolina Coastal Conservation League, Southface Institute and Vote Solar,
In its remand decision, FERC rejected arguments made by those groups.
“We find that SEEM does not contain any discounted or special terms and therefore is not a loose power pool,” FERC said.
Also, SEEM’s rules are consistent with or superior to the pro forma open access transmission tariff and FERC Order 888’s open access requirements, the agency said.
The requirement that limits SEEM participants to entities that own a power source or serve customers within the market’s footprint is a “reasonable technical requirement that does not unduly limit participation and enhances market transactions” that could not otherwise occur, FERC said.
FERC directed SEEM members to change the market’s tariff to allow market participation from outside its borders via pseudo-ties to reflect revisions to the SEEM “business practices manual.”
In the first 10 months last year, cleared volumes in the SEEM market ranged from about 60,000 MWh to 115,000 MWh a month, or about 80,000 MWh a month on average for the 12-month period ending in October, according to an annual report by Potomac Economics, the market’s auditor.
“SEEM’s current market has performed well under its limited scope,” the market auditor said.
Potomac Economics recommended that SEEM publish hourly average prices in real time to improve price discovery for participants. Longer term, the market auditor suggested adding transaction timeframes within the operating day or the next day.
“An hourly day-ahead market could facilitate fuller utilization of transmission that would improve resource commitments,” Potomac Economics said.
SEEM members include Associated Electric Cooperative, Dalton Utilities, Dominion Energy South Carolina, Duke Energy Carolinas, Duke Energy Florida, Duke Energy Progress, Georgia System Operations, Georgia Transmission, JEA, Louisville Gas & Electric and Kentucky Utilities, MEAG Power, North Carolina Municipal Power Agency No. 1, North Carolina Electric Membership Corp., Oglethorpe Power Corp., PowerSouth, Santee Cooper, Seminole Electric Corporation, Southern Co., Tampa Electric and Tennessee Valley Authority.
