The Southeast Energy Exchange Market (SEEM) is set to begin operations on Nov. 9 despite an ongoing legal challenge from environmental groups, the market’s membership board said in a filing to FERC last week (ER21-1111, et al.).

In their filing, the members noted that their agreement required the board to establish a commencement date after FERC issued orders accepting all relevant tariff filings by participating transmission providers.

The agreement automatically took effect almost exactly a year ago under Section 205 of the Federal Power Act after FERC — then evenly split between Republicans and Democrats after the departure of Commissioner Neil Chatterjee — was “divided two against two as to the lawfulness of the change.” (See SEEM to Move Ahead, Minus FERC Approval.)

The tariff approvals followed, beginning last November when the commission accepted revisions to the tariffs of four of SEEM’s founding utilities: Duke Energy, Southern Co., Dominion Energy, and LG&E and KU Energy. (See FERC Accepts Key Tariff Revisions to SEEM.) Utilities’ most recent revision came in January when FERC accepted changes to Duke’s tariff (ER21-1115).

SEEM’s founders proposed the market last year, promising to reduce trading friction while promoting the integration of renewable resources through the use of automated trading, elimination of transmission rate pancaking and allowing 15-minute energy transactions. The project has been controversial from the start; many opponents have questioned whether the proposed measures would outperform alternative structures like an RTO, while others warned that the market would allow transmission-owning utilities to exclude competitors from the market and favor their own electricity.

Although SEEM’s members are moving ahead with their operational schedule, the market is still the subject of a challenge in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. A collection of environmental, clean energy and community groups including the Southern Environmental Law Center, the Sierra Club, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association filed an appeal in February of the commission’s decision to allow the market to move forward. (See Environmental Groups Appeal SEEM in DC Circuit.)

The opponents are asking for the court to overturn both the original effective date and FERC’s subsequent tariff approvals, as well as the commission’s rejection of the rehearing requests that the opponents have previously filed for these orders.

SEEM’s members promised in their filing to update FERC “should the commencement date occur after Nov. 9, 2022, for any reason.”