Federal Trade Commission Staff Reply Comment to the New York State Public Service Commission on “Reforming the Energy Vision” Project

The FTC staff submitted a reply comment in response to certain comments filed with the New York State Public Service Commission (NY PSC) regarding the proposal to authorize the establishment of entities known as Distributed System Platform (DSP) operators, which would be responsible for balancing electricity supply and demand on local, lower-voltage distribution lines. The FTC staff comment recommended the use of a competitive procurement process to select the entities that will serve as DSP operators. This would allow a variety of bidders to show how they could keep administrative costs low, remove incentives to discriminate against independent distributed energy resources, and provide other benefits to electricity customers. The FTC staff comment also encouraged the NY PSC to use a competitive procurement approach to appoint independent market monitors to evaluate the performance of DSP operators, and suggested ways to improve the performance of the electric distribution system.