CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The state Public Service Commission made announcements about both broadband expansion and electricity grid rules Monday.
The PSC announced that broadband expansion efforts have been ameliorated after Citynet’s complaint against three pole company owners was settled. There was dispute between Citynet and pole owners Mon Power, FirstEnergy, and Frontier — over what equipment could be added to the poles. Mon Power and Citynet filed a joint report to the commission in late June that they had reached an agreement.
The PSC said the settlement will “smooth their differences” related to how much attachments will cost to poles with pre-existing issues.
“Citynet and Mon Power are satisfied with the process they have created and believe it will streamline the pole attachment process for attachers seeking to attach to Mon Power-owned poles,” the order said.
Additionally, the PSC has opened a general investigation into electric-generating capacity requirement governance, inviting public comments by August 20.
The commission’s evaluation comes in accordance with a law approved by the West Virginia Legislature last year. Under the law, the commission will evaluate the capacity auctions by PJM Interconnection, the nation’s largest electricity transmission grid — that West Virginia is a part of. Capacity auctions are related to potential future peak demand, not just its the current usage.
The PSC said that PJM wants to control the flow and amounts of electricity for the states in which it operates through its auctions. According to the PSC, the legislation wanted the commission to “encourage the voluntary participation by all electric generators in each capacity auction for the benefit of state ratepayers.” To that end, the PSC said lawmakers were pushing for a review of each generating unit’s consumer economic dispatch.
“Electric utilities shall be prepared to maximize the production of electricity from their generating units when such self-generation will result in reduced energy costs for West Virginia ratepayers,” the legislation read.
“The Commission shall require utilities to maintain their thermal baseload generating units in a manner to allow them to be able to self-generate and achieve at least a sixty-nine percent capacity factor,” the legislation continued.
Read more about the order here.