Virginia Bill Seeks to Establish Competitive Retail Power Market

Virginia Delegates Mark Keam, a Democrat, and Lee Ware, a Republican, introduced legislation on Jan. 17 that would enable customers to purchase electricity from the retail provider of their choice, ending monopoly control over the state’s energy system. The bill would require each incumbent investor-owned utility, electric cooperative, and municipal electric authority to separate its customer energy services business activities from its regulated utility activities.

The legislation sets a Jan. 10, 2021 deadline for monopoly utilities to file plans with the state’s Corporation Commission to separate their retail services activities that are already widely available in the competitive market from regulated utility activities. The plan would be implemented by Sept. 1, 2021. Business activities would be separated into a distribution utility, transmission utility, power generation company, and a retail electric provider, or into a single transmission and distribution utility by Jan. 1, 2022.

The measure would establish an independent distribution system operator to oversee the distribution systems of all electric distribution utilities and perform other duties, including ensuring open access to the distribution systems for all buyers and sellers of electricity.

Currently, monopolies including Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power own and operate the vertically integrated system.