Committee tables Delegate Lopez retail choice bill after debate over consumer protections and costs

At a meeting of the House Committee on Labor and Commerce, Delegate Lopez presented a substitute bill to expand retail electricity shopping for large customers, but the committee laid the measure on the table by recorded vote 16‑5.

The substitute, as described by Delegate Lopez, would allow more large energy users to access the retail electricity market through licensed competitive service providers (CSPs) by lowering the megawatt threshold from 5 megawatts to 1 megawatt, shorten a current five‑year notice requirement for customers returning to utility service to six months, permit aggregation of multiple sites to qualify to shop, and require out‑of‑state suppliers serving Virginia shopping customers to meet the clean energy percentages required under the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA). Lopez also said the substitute adds an enforcement tool: “we added a subsection f to institute noncompliance payments if competitive service providers fail to procure minimum clean energy requirements,” and that the bill exempts electric cooperatives to avoid unintended effects on their customers.

Why it matters: Lopez framed the bill as a limited way to expand customer choice without altering monopoly utility structure, saying Virginia is importing…