The Virginia Supreme Court has affirmed that statute authorizes the State Corporation Commission to consider the impact on remaining captive utility supply customers, under the public interest standard, when ruling on a petition of a customer who seeks to aggregate their load to 5 MW in order to take competitive retail electric supply

Wal-Mart had appealed an SCC decision that had denied Wal-Mart's petition for aggregation, with the SCC finding that Wal-Mart's exit from utility supply would adversely impact remaining captive utility customers due to higher costs. The Court affirmed the SCC's decision

See background on Wal-Mart's petition and the exemptions for retail choice in Virginia here

See the Court's ruling here

As previously reported, the newly enacted HB 889 allows a handful of customers (including Wal-Mart) to aggregate non-contiguous sites for the purposes of reaching the current 5 MW threshold allowing customers to take electric choice without having to purchase 100% renewable supply as a condition of electric choice.

See details on 889 here