News Stories

In a press release, the Retail Energy Advancement League (REAL) explain that new “legislation has been introduced to strengthen West Virginia’s energy market by giving major employers new options to manage electricity costs, while protecting residential and small business ratepayers. The bill was introduced by Sen. Patricia Rucker “that allows commercial and industrial companies to purchase electricity supply directly from competitive electric suppliers rather than being limited to a single utility option, helping them better manage rising energy costs.”

SB 733 establishing the “Energy Freedom and Fairness Act” Permitting retail electricity choice for large non-residential customers, allowing them to purchase power from third-party competitive suppliers rather than relying solely on their electric utility. 

“The concept is simple: allow large energy users to have direct access to an energy marketplace to meet their electricity needs the same way utility companies do,” said Chris Ercoli, president and CEO of the Retail Energy Advancement League. “Allowing large energy users to access competitive electric supply is a practical solution that can reduce their cost pressures, encourage new power generation from independent power producers, and ease the strain on utility systems — benefiting all ratepayers in the long run. We applaud Sen. Rucker for her comprehensive approach to help support West Virginia’s energy needs.”

SB 733 would also authorize “[o]ne or more non-residential retail customers may meet the peak demand threshold of this section by aggregating loads at contiguous or non-contiguous sites located within the state. Individual non-residential retail customers may form an aggregation program to procure bulk power as a group. For purposes of qualification, the 1-megawatt threshold for the aggregated group of accounts may utilize the sum of each account’s annual non-coincident peak demand.”

Read full bill text here.