Empower industry, protect households and ensure reliability with a commonsense energy policy.
States all across the country are abruptly exiting the “flat load era,” a time when energy demand remained constant with little need for new baseload power generation. Now, with the increase of electrification and the digital wave of new artificial intelligence technologies, energy demand is soaring, creating concerns for residents and businesses alike.
In states that have not restructured their energy market, utility companies are in great need of building or buying more electricity to support the energy demands of their current and prospective customers. The high costs of doing either are passed down to the ratepayers (customers).
States all across the country are abruptly exiting the “flat load era,” a time when energy demand remained constant with little need for new baseload power generation. Now, with the increase of electrification and the digital wave of new artificial intelligence technologies, energy demand is soaring, creating concerns for residents and businesses alike.
In states that have not restructured their energy market, utility companies are in great need of building or buying more electricity to support the energy demands of their current and prospective customers. The high costs of doing either are passed down to the ratepayers (customers).
But what if there was a simple policy solution that could protect consumers from added costs for new power generation while supporting the intense energy demands of large energy users?
The Solution
The Energy Freedom and Fairness Act is structured to be adopted in a state that doesn’t currently allow large energy users to procure their own electricity. This policy solution helps empower industry, protect households and ensure reliability.
The concept of The Energy Freedom & Fairness Act is to allow commercial and industrial electricity users –– manufacturers, steel producers, automotive developers, tech giants –– to buy their own electricity. This simple policy change helps relieve the demand pressure placed on investor-owned utility companies, and it helps protect the pockets of ratepayers by limiting the need for utilities to construct new power plants.
The BYOP (Buy Your Own Power) model provides large businesses the ability to shop at a marketplace for their electricity. The model can also be expanded to allow large energy users to bring or build their own power, enabling them to work directly with an independent power producer, or invest to build their own generation. All of these options place reliability and financial risk on the large energy user, not other consumers. At the same time, this model gives businesses control over one of their most expensive operational costs: electricity. Major employers can have the freedom to save significantly by negotiating the cost of their electricity or implementing their own sources.
A Case Study on Michigan
Michigan opened shopping for 10% of utility customer load in 2008. The cap has been fully subscribed since 2008 with 5,000+ commercial and industrial customers served by third party suppliers. In 2024, there more than 5,000 additional customers in the queue that wish to be able to shop under the cap.
To view a report from the Michigan Public Service Commission, click here.