This Utility Dive article discusses the Arizona Corporation Commission's decision on Monday to open the nation's first state regulatory docket expressly focused on transactive energy. National Grid and Southern California Edison both have small transactive energy pilots, and California, New York and Arizona have addressed some aspects of the concept in general utility reform proceedings. AEE's Coley Girouard, Senior Associate, is quoted. Link to the full article here. Excerpts below:

The Arizona Corporation Commission on Monday opened the nation's first state regulatory docket expressly focused on transactive energy at the request of Commissioner Andy Tobin.

Other states have addressed transactive energy — the ability for consumers to trade electricity services in real time — in generic utility reform dockets, but Arizona's proceeding is the first to target the issue in its own proceeding, said Coley Girouard, senior associate at Advanced Energy Economy, a cleantech trade group.

The concept refers to a system where distributed energy resources can receive real-time compensation, likely through the use of a digital ledger based on blockchain technology, which today allows traders of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin to make instantaneous, anonymous transactions. 

Tobin's office is hopeful the ACC will take up his broader utility reforms later, which could help pave the way for the transactive energy docket. Preparing Arizona for blockchain technology could be challenging without further reforms to the state's utilities, which remain vertically integrated, said Sonia Aggarwal, vice president at the think tank Energy Innovation.

Link to the full UD article here.