The Southeast Energy Exchange Market continues to bolster its ranks, adding four Florida utilities including Duke Energy to its roster less than a month ahead of its planned launch.
Duke Energy Florida, JEA, Seminole Electric Cooperative and TECO Energy expect to join active energy trading in mid-2023. The market’s initial launch is scheduled for Nov. 9, a SEEM spokesman confirmed.
The Florida utilities grow the market’s footprint to include 23 entities across a dozen states, SEEM officials said. Participants have a combined 180,000 MW of summer capacity, growing to almost 200,000 MW in the winter, to serve more than 36 million retail customers.
SEEM expects to generate customer savings “through lower fuel costs as we’re able to select lower-cost and more efficient generation resources to serve customer demand,” according to the market’s web site.
Federal regulators approved transmission rules for the new market in November. A lawsuit challenging that approval is still pending.
The new market members view SEEM “as a platform to help save their customers money and better integrate renewable resources, while ensuring customers across the region realize the promise of renewables," Noel Black, Southern Company's senior vice president of governmental affairs, said in a statement.
Black added that SEEM “continue[s] on track with market trials to prepare for market launch in the coming weeks."
