Boston, MA – The Retail Energy Supply Association (RESA) provides the following statements in response to the newly released Massachusetts Electric Grid Modernization Steering Committee Report to the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU):
“The Retail Energy Supply Association welcomes the report in that it calls for implementing grid modernization reforms in a manner attentive of the impact on the restructured competitive retail market, and the implications for customer confusion,” said Daniel Allegretti, RESA’s New England chair.
“We would especially emphasize the report’s recommendations regarding customer access to advanced metering information, and the role of competitive retail suppliers in providing time-varying rates and other value-added pricing,” Allegretti added.
“Utility default service should remain a plain-vanilla product, especially for residential and small commercial customers,” Allegretti said. “Customers – and the DPU – should look to the competitive market for solutions such as time-varying rates and programs that encourage load shifting, conservation and energy efficiency. By providing these programs on a competitive basis, suppliers are able to reduce the amount of ratepayer dollars needed to fund these programs.”
Marc Hanks, Senior Manager of Government & Regulatory Affairs for Direct Energy, a RESA-member company, and a steering committee participant, said “smart meter technology and the level of customer data available from them has the potential to unleash a wave of innovation, delivering the value and benefits of restructured electricity markets to customers not currently available in Massachusetts.”
RESA applauds the DPU for establishing a stakeholder process to develop recommendations for meeting the agency’s grid-modernization goals. Competitive retail suppliers were among representatives of state government, consumer and environmental groups, the Distribution Companies and ISO New England and a wide range of clean energy companies and organizations that participated in the stakeholder process.
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About RESA
RESA represents competitive energy suppliers dedicated to creating and sustaining vibrantly competitive electricity and natural gas markets for the benefit of consumers. RESA’s members include: AEP Energy, Inc.; Champion Energy Services, LLC; ConEdison Solutions; Constellation NewEnergy, Inc.; Direct Energy Services, LLC; GDF SUEZ Energy Resources NA, Inc.; Hess Corporation; Homefield Energy; IDT Energy; Integrys Energy Services, Inc.; Just Energy; Liberty Power; MC Squared Energy Services, LLC; Mint Energy, LLC; NextEra Energy Services; Noble Americas Energy Solutions LLC; NRG, Inc.; PPL EnergyPlus, LLC; Stream Energy; TransCanada Power Marketing Ltd. and TriEagle Energy, L.P. For more information about RESA please contact Tracy McCormick, Executive Director, at (717) 566-5405, or visit www.resausa.org.